Trigger Warning: This post deals with issues of domestic violence and may be triggering for survivors of abuse.
By HARRIET PAWSON
How many times have you got up in the night to go to the loo?
Did you take your phone? Possibly. Two phones? No.
Did you close the door to the toilet? Unlikely.
Did you lock the door? Of course not, why would you? Not if the only other person in the house was your partner and he was asleep.
When you get up to go to the bathroom, do you crouch next to the toilet with your hands over your head in a desperate, terrified bid to protect yourself from the person on the other side of the door?
Reeva did. She was cowering on the floor when she was shot to death.
How many times have you sent your partner a text saying, “I am scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me?”
How many times have you told your parents you need to end your relationship and packed your bags to leave your partner? Reeva did all of those things, in the days before that same partner shot her to death.
I think we can all agree that in the well documented description of circumstances leading to Reeva Steenkamp being brutally shot to death by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, there’s nothing that can be reasonably described as “normal relationship behaviour”.
Top Comments
I feel so sorry for poor Reeva, she was so close to escaping this man but he took it all away from her. It just sickens me when you hear that this isn't the first woman who he has treated like this and terrified. I sincerely hope no other woman is naive enough to buy into his bullshit ever again.
Can not believe some of the amateur analysis and lawyering going on here. The judicial system in Sth Africa found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide, roughly equivalent to our manslaughter. It did not find him charged with or guilty of premeditated murder. This decision not to proceed with a murder charge would have been made by the prosecution given the evidence and the likelihood of obtaining a conviction. The pressure on the court and judge to be perceived as fair and just would be even greater than usual due to the profiles involved. What is amazing is that we have a black woman judge from a poor family in Soweto handing down judgement on a high profile white man in South Africa. The death of