Oscar Pistorius sentenced for murder

I agree with smileless and breeze

And with you ab in that there is nothing sickening in any disability.

It wasn't the disability itself that was sickening, it was the use of it to manipulate the court and the judge's decision on sentencing and elicit sympathy when he knew it was being televised.

It seems to have worked as the sentence seems very light.

The reality is hes either physopath or is suffering from a personality disorder.Hes behavior all through his adult life has shown this.Sll through their relationship he was intensly possive and jealous of her.My own father was this very type.A violent phyco alcholic.I had to live wth him for 19 years as a child before i was able yo finslly get out .So i no the type.19 years is a very long education.So he was always going to eventually comitte a violent crime.The reports of the phycartists were kept quiet because his uncke is a very rich and powerful man and pulled strings .Thats why he only got 6 years

Havers Helmsley! I read all about the psychiatrists and psychologists reports. I'm sorry about your Dad. You've obviously had a sad early life with him.
I think Pistorious's sentence is just about ok. Its hard for us over here to understand the petrifying paranoia of life in SA. I was shocked there to find that my DD and her husband slept in what was basically what amounted to a cage- a steel grill at the door and windows. Security guards, razor wire and locked compounds abound. Nevertheless the worse sometimes happens. I won't go into details here.
Living in that sort of bubble, taking steroids, being disabled all adds up to a recipe for rash, thoughtless action. I'm sure that he was desperately sorry. He could hardly be more remorseful. He's had a bad time in jail and faces years more. I'm sure the hangers and floggers on here will disagree but I'm in favour of mercy. He's done wrong. He knows it and is suffering and will continue to suffer for the rest of his life.

The Steenkamps lost their daughter and were unsurprisingly devastated but felt able to accept money every month from Oscar...

Jane10

Now stop telling the truth, you will spoil the illusion, and that's not going to get us any where.

As far as I know ths Steenkamps were almost bankrupt before this unfortunate incident.

Reeva had financially supported her parents. Oscar killed their daughter and presumably felt he should replace that financial support. He also no doubt was fully aware this 'generosity' would do his image no harm.

I find it both unkind and distasteful to defend him on the grounds of pressure in life in SA yet criticise her parents who had little financial resource and would have been emotionally, if not physically due to age, unable to work and generate an income. Life in SA is stressful and difficult even if you do have cash

Jane10 interesting that you are 'sure' he was desperately sorry. Ever heard of acting? Living in a difficult environment shouldn't be an excuse for murder. No one believes it was an accident. If it were my daughter? Well, I'd take the money, save up for a gun and return the favour. So he's having a hard time in jail. Isn't everyone who is in jail. Isn't that what they are for? If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. I wonder if, during your defence of this man, and concern for his welfare, you could ever contemplate, sitting on the loo, terrified out of your life, knowing he's lost the plot, hearing him shouting and screaming outside, then the terror as that first bullet hit, you, then another, then another, then realising your life is ending. But he's sorry! hey, let's forgive him then.

Totally devastated at this sentence and her family must be a100tmes so. You never know with S.A. if bribery and corruption were involved.
I hope he is never ever able to be involved in athlectics.
Despicable man should rot in hell when his time comes.

Life in closed and gated communities is a fact in SA for the wealthy. My sister in law lives like this for much of the year and thinks very little of it now. For those of us visiting it feels pretty grim and dangerous but, like everything, we adapt to our environment.

Jane10 says:
I was shocked there to find that my DD and her husband slept in what was basically what amounted to a cage- a steel grill at the door and windows. Security guards, razor wire and locked compounds abound.

But of course we don't live there, and those that do, don't seem to feel the same way about it. It's just a necessity. If asked, they shrug and say they'd rather it was different but then just get on with life.

These things, the razor wire etc are nothing to do with the 6 years I feel.
I believe this short sentence comes entirely from his privileged status.

Pistorius sent some money to Reeva's parents for a while after her murder; they have vowed to pay back everything, but they were destitute at the time. They refused a lump sum 'blood money' and their lawyer refused money Pistorius put in her account.
Presumably rich, privileged Soth Africans still think they can buy their way out of trouble.

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/reeva-steenkamp-parents-payments-oscar-pistorius

I am not a flog 'em and hang 'em person but I believe the sentence is too lenient, as do many women's rights groups in SA.

South Africans

gononsuch

If you're a white man and you murder a white women, you get 6 years. If you're a white man and you murder a black women you get a job in government. That' what SA is like.

That statement makes no sense at all, South Africa has a majority black government, so why would someone who murders a black woman get a job in government...

I can't help but wonder what the sentence would have been if he'd been a young black man, whether or not he was disabled.

Maybe his little performance was at the suggestion of his defense team but he didn't have to agree to it did he, still it seems to have had the desired effect.

The black murderers of Annie Dewani (a Swedish woman of Indian background) got 18 years, 25 years and life respectively (the one who got life died in gaol).

Not on,y dud the parents accept money from the man who killed their daughter, they did a photo shoot for Hello magazine , on the beach where they had scattered her ashes,seems it was a very special place , !

Perhaps they did that so that they could give him back the money which they said they would return - every cent?

She was supporting them with monthly payments before she was killed I think; who knows if they were desperate for money to live on.

Good point Jalima about the photo shoot for 'Hello'. Only they know their reasons for agreeing to that and for taking money from their daughter's killer.

It's difficult to speculate what their motivations were, perhaps they thought she was being forgotten in all the publicity being given to Pistorius but whatever their reasons, they deserve our sympathy for the brutal murder of their daughter and he deserves our revulsion for his crime.

They have my sympathy for the loss of their daughter, I think the photo shoots were in bad taste and no tribute to their daughter, they also wrote a book . Seems she was a meal ticket before and after death

Sadly that seems very true Ab.
Over here its possible to get very short sentences for killing people if you do it in your car!
Basically you can't compare the criminal justice system and its outcomes with that in SA. Things are just too different. Unless you subscribe to the old Testament view of course. An eye for an eye etc.
Oscar will have an appalling time in jail. He's already been ill treated by prison staff and has now been threatened with gang rape. No wonder his Clinical Psychologist -a professor from CT university - said that he was so mentally unwell that he should be admitted to hospital. Take a broader view Grans -its a ghastly tragedy all round. 2 lives as they knew it are gone.

Smileless, you say only the parents know their reasons for the photo shoot, how come this isn't the same for Pistorius , you seem to know everything about his reasons for evything he does.

Jane, I think as you do .

I don't believe his explanation Anniebach. Why would someone investigate a noise in their home during the night, taking a loaded gun and not find out where their partner was before firing?

Surely instinctively he'd have checked to see if she was sleeping beside him? According to him, he started firing at the locked bathroom door, no warning issued? 'Tell me who you are or I'm going to fire'!!!

I don't know why he murdered his girlfriend but it's clear to me that he used his disability to illicit sympathy from the court.

He's been found guilty of her murder as he should have been unfortunately the sentence doesn't fit the crime.

Smile less, you may not believe his explanation but you do not know if it is true or not

Doesn't the fact that he's at last been found guilty of her murder show that his explanation isn't true Anniebach?

Staggering that a in SA asentence of 6 years for murdering your partner yet another gets 77 years for killing a rhino.. I despair. !