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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/jun/15/oscar-pistorius-sentencing-live-day-three-reeva-steenkamp
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| Oscar Pistorius sentencing hearing to hear 'emotional evidence' – live | Oscar Pistorius sentencing hearing to hear 'emotional evidence' – live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 8.54am BST | |
| 08:54 | |
| Roux: There are serious enemies, so to speak, in this matter. | |
| There is a perception created that [Pistorius] wanted to kill the deceased … Was it really true that he wanted to kill her? | |
| Is it not perhaps a different picture? | |
| 8.53am BST | |
| 08:53 | |
| The defence and state have now called all their witnesses and we will move on to closing arguments. | |
| Barry Roux for the defence is up first. He says his team compared Masipa’s original judgment and compared it with that handed down by the supreme court “in order to try to present to you a complete picture”. | |
| 8.50am BST | |
| 08:50 | |
| Roux pushes Martin: did she know about the Valentine’s card Steenkamp made for Pistorius? Only from court, she tells him. | |
| Her questioning is now over. | |
| 8.48am BST | |
| 08:48 | |
| Roux now reads from an interview in 2013 given by Steenkamp’s friend Gina Myers in which she says Reeva was happy in her relationship. | |
| Martin says she cannot speak for Myers. She says she doesn’t know what Roux expects her to say. She says she thinks her cousin was fond of Pistorius but did not love him. | |
| Myers, incidentally, is tweeting at the moment; she does not appear to support this line of questioning: | |
| This is honestly one of the most frustrating feelings in the world. | |
| 8.45am BST | |
| 08:45 | |
| Barry Roux is up for the defence. He says he was very careful and respectful with Barry Steenkamp yesterday and feels sorry for the family. | |
| But he says the time has come to challenge some of what has been heard. He says the family story has changed. | |
| He reads reports from friends of Steenkamp’s who described a good relationship between her and Pistorius. One said Steenkamp had said she loved him and would marry him if he asked her. | |
| Martin says this was not what her cousin told her. They were close, she says: | |
| Reeva had the opportunity to tell me she loved Oscar and she never did. | |
| 8.43am BST | |
| 08:43 | |
| Martin: We just wanted the truth. People say we got the truth, but we didn’t. Oscar’s version changed so many times … | |
| He never apologised for shooting Reeva. I don’t feel the truth came out. | |
| Nel says he has no further questions for Martin. | |
| 8.39am BST | |
| 08:39 | |
| Nel asks her about family celebrations: Christmas and birthdays. Martin says they are difficult, especially Valentine’s day, the anniversary of Steenkamp’s death. | |
| We don’t want every occasion to become a funeral. | |
| She says Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, is “a broken man”. He feels guilt at being unable to protect his daughter. | |
| Updated | |
| at 8.39am BST | |
| 8.37am BST | |
| 08:37 | |
| Gerrie Nel asks her about an interview Pistorius has given to Britain’s ITV channel. She says she thinks it “very unfair” and “hurtful”. | |
| He had a chance to tell his story in court, she says. | |
| 8.36am BST | |
| 08:36 | |
| Martin: I saw my dad cry for the very first time when Reeva died, and I saw him cry for the second time when he heard I had to testify again. | |
| To have to be exposed to the media … it’s very difficult. | |
| 8.36am BST | |
| 08:36 | |
| She says her children “suffer very much”, as does she and her wider family: | |
| Besides the obvious anxiety and depression, as a family we’ll never be able to carry on life as normal. | |
| She says people will often want to talk to her and her family about Pistorius: | |
| It’s never going to leave us. | |
| 8.33am BST | |
| 08:33 | |
| Martin says not a day goes by without her thinking of Reeva. | |
| She says she copes because she has to, but the scars run very deep: | |
| We’ll never get over it. | |
| 8.30am BST | |
| 08:30 | |
| Final state witness is Kim Martin | |
| Kim Martin is a cousin of Reeva Steenkamp, and previously gave evidence to this same court during Pistorius’ initial sentencing hearing in 2014 – at which he was given a five-year sentence for culpable homicide. | |
| Martin told the court then that hearing news of her cousin’s death news felt like “the end of the world”: | |
| My mother was hysterical and that’s when I knew it was true. That was for me the end of the world. Everything was just a blur from then onwards … We were all like, ‘why, why, why Reeva?’ It was the worst, worst experience I have ever, ever been through. | |
| 8.30am BST | |
| 08:30 | |
| Court resumes | |
| Judge Thokozile Masipa arrives. | |
| She said yesterday that she wanted to conclude the testimony and arguments for both sides by the end of today, even if that meant the court sitting for longer. | |
| 8.28am BST | |
| 08:28 | |
| The state witnesses | |
| Oscar has to pay for what he did. He has to pay for it … | |
| That is up to the court. And we will go by the decision that the court hands down to Oscar. But he has to pay for his crime. | |
| 8.20am BST | 8.20am BST |
| 08:20 | 08:20 |
| The defence witnesses | The defence witnesses |
| Further imprisonment would have a detrimental effect on him. | Further imprisonment would have a detrimental effect on him. |
| Mr Pistorius would be better served … if he gave back in a positive and constructive way, using his skills. | Mr Pistorius would be better served … if he gave back in a positive and constructive way, using his skills. |
| 8.05am BST | 8.05am BST |
| 08:05 | 08:05 |
| Opening summary | Opening summary |
| Claire Phipps | Claire Phipps |
| Today the state is due to put forward its final witness in the sentencing hearing that will determine the fate of Oscar Pistorius. | Today the state is due to put forward its final witness in the sentencing hearing that will determine the fate of Oscar Pistorius. |
| He faces a possible 15-year prison sentence after his conviction for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp in 2013 was upgraded to murder by South Africa’s supreme court. | He faces a possible 15-year prison sentence after his conviction for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp in 2013 was upgraded to murder by South Africa’s supreme court. |
| Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court yesterday that his last witness would today offer “emotional evidence” on the impact of the murder. | Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court yesterday that his last witness would today offer “emotional evidence” on the impact of the murder. |
| The high court in Pretoria has so far heard moving testimony from Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, who broke down as he told the judge, Thokozile Masipa, that he talked to his daughter everyday, and had pushed diabetes needles into his arms and stomach to try to share in the pain she must have felt. | The high court in Pretoria has so far heard moving testimony from Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, who broke down as he told the judge, Thokozile Masipa, that he talked to his daughter everyday, and had pushed diabetes needles into his arms and stomach to try to share in the pain she must have felt. |
| Pistorius killed Steenkamp, his girlfriend, by firing four bullets through a locked toilet cubicle door at his Pretoria home. He has always claimed he believed he was tackling an intruder. | Pistorius killed Steenkamp, his girlfriend, by firing four bullets through a locked toilet cubicle door at his Pretoria home. He has always claimed he believed he was tackling an intruder. |
| I’ll post a summary shortly of the evidence heard so far. My colleague Jason Burke has been in court and filed this dispatch on yesterday’s hearing. | I’ll post a summary shortly of the evidence heard so far. My colleague Jason Burke has been in court and filed this dispatch on yesterday’s hearing. |
| Comments are currently switched off on this live blog, but please do contact me via Twitter @Claire_Phipps with comments, thoughts and questions. | Comments are currently switched off on this live blog, but please do contact me via Twitter @Claire_Phipps with comments, thoughts and questions. |