Oscar Pistorius verdict leaves Reeva Steenkamp’s parents in ‘disbelief’

PRETORIA — Reeva Steenkamp’s parents on Friday described their “disbelief” at the acquittal of Oscar Pistorius for murder, voicing their anger for the first time since his trial began six months ago.
Barry and June Steenkamp, whose daughter died instantly when Pistorius shot her through a locked lavatory door last year, said they were shocked that he escaped a murder charge.
“It doesn’t add up,” said June Steenkamp, composed, but evidently bitterly disappointed.
Holding her husband’s hand in a hotel room hours after the not guilty verdict was read out, she told the American television channel NBC: “She died a horrible death. A horrible, painful, terrible death. And she suffered, you know?

“I just don’t feel that this is the right sentence. They believe his story, and I don’t believe that story — that’s the difference. And I can’t believe that they believe it was an accident.”
In a separate interview with ITV News Barry Steenkamp said: “It’s a funny thing to say, or a thing a person shouldn’t say, to see a man there with the status that he had in the world, to see somebody standing there so pathetic.
“You actually feel deep down, you know, he could have been prevented. You actually feel sorry for him. I understand that he is sorry he’s done it and this and that. As I said, there is still something missing. I think there was more to the whole story, you know, coming up to the actual shooting, the killing.”