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With Oscar Pistorius freed from prison today, the disgraced former Paralympic star is back in the spotlight.
Pistorius has served just nine years behind bars for the murder of his 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, after shooting her four times through a bathroom door at his home in Pretoria, South Africa in 2013.
Throughout the high profile case, much of the focus has been on the now 37-year-old athlete, who maintains he thought he was firing at an intruder, with Reeva often reduced to his beautiful and tragic victim.
Reeva certainly was striking and had worked as a successful model since the age of 14, but she was also a law graduate on her way to becoming a lawyer, campaigned passionately for victims of rape and had started building a successful TV career – all before her relationship with Pistorius.
In what has become the ‘Oscar Pistorius show’ it’s important to remember the promising woman behind a life that was shockingly cut short.
Reeva was born in Cape Town in 1983 to parents Barry, a horse trainer, and his wife June, who was originally from Blackburn in the UK.
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Barry and June each had a child from previous relationships and, according to June, Reeva came as a surprise in her late 30s.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2014, June described her daughter, who was a devout Christian, as the ‘perfect child’.
‘This is the child I gave birth to, this adorable, wonderful child who worked hard at school, straight to varsity [university], did brilliantly,’ she said.
‘I can’t even remember one argument that we ever had because she was so good. She loved us and we loved her.’
Reeva, an avid horse rider until she broke her back in her early 20s, studied law at the University of Port Elizabeth, where she graduated in 2005.
She then worked as a paralegal and model and had reportedly applied to the bar in late 2011, hoping to be a qualified legal advocate by the age of 30.
Reeva was a determined campaigner against domestic abuse and sexual assault and on the day she died was due to give a speech at a school in Johannesburg, telling pupils she had been in an abusive relationship herself (prior to Pistorius) and urging them not to put up with mistreatment.
In a now poignant Tweet, posted just days before she was killed, Reeva wrote: ‘I woke up in a happy safe home this morning. Not everyone did. Speak out against the rape of individuals…’
Prior to her three-month relationship with Pistorius, Reeva was already well-known on the celebrity circuit.
Her modelling, which included being the first face of Avon cosmetics and gracing the cover of FHM, brought her to the spotlight and led to TV work.
She worked as a roaming reporter for FashionTV, featured as a celebrity contestant on a BBC show called Baking Made Easy and had recently finished filming a reality show called Tropika Island of Treasure in Jamaica.
The first episode, broadcast two days after her death, was dedicated to Reeva.
According to June, her daughter was excited about the show as she hoped it would raise her profile and ultimately give her a stronger platform to campaign from.
She told the MailOnline this week: ‘Her vision was to build a public profile and then practice as an attorney so that she could help abused men, women, children. Even animals. She would walk the animals at the animal shelter on weekends.’
Reeva and Pistorius became a couple in November 2012 after the pair met on South Africa’s A-list social circuit.
According to evidence shared during Pistorius’ murder trial, Reeva had told him ‘I’m scared of you sometimes’, less than three weeks before she died.
Text messages between the two revealed the Olympian’s jealous bursts of anger.
As reported by the Guardian, one message from Reeva read: ‘You have picked on me excessively … I do everything to make you happy and you do everything to throw tantrums.’
She added: ‘I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me.’
In another she wrote: ‘We are living in a double standard relationship. Every five seconds I hear about how you dated another chick. You really have dated a lot of people yet you get upset if I mention one funny story with a long-term boyfriend.’
In response to her daughter’s death and to carry on the work Reeva had done to raise awareness of domestic violence, June set up the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation in 2015.
The foundation aims educate people against abuse of women and children, empower victims to become self-supporting and let them know what resources are available to them.
Pistorius became eligible for parole halfway through his sentence, which was set at 13 years and five months after his manslaughter conviction was upgraded to murder in 2016.
He will now live at his uncle’s £2 million three-story mansion in Pretoria’s affluent Waterkloof suburb and will be constantly monitored until his sentence ends in December 2029.
Following his release today, Reeva’s mother said in a statement that she had accepted the decision to let him go, but added her family was the one ‘serving a life sentence’.
She said she welcomed the conditions imposed by the parole board, which include anger management courses and programmes on gender-based violence – adding that those decisions had ‘affirmed Barry and my belief in the South African justice system.’
Sadly, Barry died last September, following years of ill health, which June believes was made worse by his daughter’s murder.
‘Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time?’ June statement continued. ‘There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back. We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence.
‘My only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva’s legacy.’
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of external affairs at Women’s Aid, said murders that occur ‘in the home’ – such as that of Reeva’s – are still not being taken seriously enough, with sentences often too short and not reflecting the severity of the crime.
She added: ‘It is essential that Reeva Steenkamp is not forgotten and doesn’t become a footnote in the story of her killer.
‘Each victim of domestic homicide is important – they are daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, beloved friends.
‘It is vital that we continue to keep their lives and stories front and centre, as we continue to build a world where violence against women and girls is no longer tolerated.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
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