Steenkamp family not seeking revenge – cousin

“My family are not seeking revenge,” Kim Martin, Steenkamp’s cousin, said to questions from prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

“We just feel that if you take someone’s life, shoot behind a door, shoot an unarmed person… You need sufficient punishment.”

She said she was initially afraid that prison would be bad for Pistorius but after the case understood that prisons did cater for people with disabilities.

Martin told the court that everyone had suffered in the case and that Pistorius should go to jail for what he had done to her family, his family and to Steenkamp.

“Everyone has suffered here. We need to send a message to society,” Martin said.

“I don’t think the suggested punishment will fit the crime.”

Under cross-examination, Pistorius’s lawyer, Barry Roux asked her if she would be against a prison term if the conditions would not be humane for a disabled person.

She replied that she would not want anyone to live under inhumane conditions.

On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentine’s Day 2013, shooting Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

On Wednesday social worker and probation officer Anette Vergeer recommended community service for Pistorius.

Pistorius was found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013. He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.

– Sapa

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