'I do not believe Oscar's version': June Steenkamp is adamant ...

June Steenkamp, the mother of Oscar Pistorius' murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, says she does not believe that he has been rehabilitated and, if this is the case, fears for the safety of women if he is released.

In a victim impact statement read out by Rob Matthews, whose daughter Leigh was kidnapped and murdered by Donovan Moodley in 2004, June reiterated her doubts over Pistorius' account of the 14 February 2013 shooting.

The Paralympian maintains that he believed Reeva to be an intruder when he shot her four times through a locked toilet door.

June said:

While the National Prosecuting Authority initially maintained that Reeva had screamed during the shooting that claimed her life, Pistorius' close neighbours testified that the screaming had emanated from him. That evidence was not successfully challenged by the State.

Gauteng High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa also believed Pistorius' account of the shooting and convicted him of culpable homicide – a finding that was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

The SCA found that, even if Pistorius believed that he was shooting at an intruder when he fired multiple shots at his bathroom door, he must have reasonably foreseen that whoever was behind that door would die. As such, it said, he was guilty of murder under the principle of dolus eventualis. The case was referred back to Masipa for a new sentence. 

READ | ConCourt effectively confirms Oscar Pistorius became eligible for parole in March

The SCA, in a ruling written by Judge Willie Seriti, later found that the six-year sentence Masipa had handed down to Pistorius was "shockingly lenient" and said there was no reason he should not receive a 15-year minimum sentence for non-premeditated murder. Seriti noted that Pistorius had already served one year and seven months for culpable homicide – and reduced his sentence to 13 years and five months.

In its 24 November 2017 judgment, the court did not, however, explicitly state when that sentence came into effect. And that had big implications for Pistorius, who had already started serving his six-year jail term at the time the SCA sentenced him.

It took a Constitutional Court application for parole authorities to admit that Pistorius' murder sentence should have come into effect when he began serving his first sentence, meaning he became eligible for parole in March this year. As a result, his second parole hearing is taking place at the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre this morning.

In her victim impact statement, June said she had decided not to attend the hearing "as I simply cannot muster the energy to face him [Pistorius] again at this stage". She added that the recent death of her husband, Barry Steenkamp had "opened the wounds in many ways caused by Reeva's death".  

"I have no doubt that Barry died of a broken heart. No parent should have to bury a child and, most certainly, not in the circumstances that prevailed in the demise of Reeva," she said.

Read the victim impact statement here: 

June, however, said she had "forgiven Oscar long ago, as I knew almost instantly that I would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger".

While Pistorius maintains that he loved Reeva and would never have deliberately harmed her, June has referred to four text messages Reeva sent him 17 days before her death – as well as the evidence of his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Taylor – which showed that Reeva was a victim of gender-based violence.

June referred to messages sent by her daughter to Pistorius following a fight between the couple on 27 January 2013, in which Reeva wrote: "I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me.

"I'm the girl who fell in love with you, but I'm also the girl who gets side-stepped when you are in a sh*t mood … I get snapped at and told my accent and voices are annoying.

"I was not flirting with anyone today. I feel sick that you should suggest it," adding that he had  "f**ked up a special day for me by throwing a tantrum".

"You do everything to throw tantrums in front of people."

Pistorius' lawyers argued during his trial that these messages were a handful out of thousands of loving interactions exchanged between him and Reeva – and, in any event, could not be said to show abuse.

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It is apparent that June does not accept this and is categoric that Pistorius was an abusive partner. 

"I do not know to what extent this behaviour still exists or [was] evident during his time of incarceration, but I am concerned for the safety of any woman should this not have been addressed in his rehabilitation," she said.

"I do not know which rehabilitation programmes were attended by Oscar while incarcerated, but I sincerely hope that his rehabilitation included psychotherapy to deal with his temper and abusive behaviour towards women. I also hope that specialist criminologists were engaged to assist in compiling a psychological profile that would assist in determining his risk for recidivism. At this time, I am not convinced that Oscar has been rehabilitated." 

That belief appears to be rooted in June's belief that Pistorius has not told the truth about her daughter's death.

Psychologist and social worker reports filed as part of Pistorius' parole litigation have, however, endorsed his possible release – and found that he is remorseful about Reeva's death, which he maintains was a terrible accident.

Pistorius' parole hearing is expected to conclude on Friday.