Letter: Pistorius must pay proper penalty

State to appeal sentence As an adult who has been totally paralysed for months and unable to walk without aids of one sort or another for years, I am well aware of the disadvantages of an impaired walking ability. I believe that in the days of the “Wild West” a six-shooter became known as an “equaliser”. This description is more than applicable to Oscar Pistorius’s situation as he stood, albeit on his stumps (which he is fully accustomed to do more than competently) with an automatic, loaded with cartridges selected to kill, aimed at the closed toilet door. He is more than equal, in fact at a distinct advantage over any imagined intruder, who would have no knowledge of what the position was on the other side of the door, and would have to open it and peer through to establish this – thus revealing himself sufficiently enough to reveal to Pistorius that he was not Reeva Steenkamp. Any reasonable man, who did not have murder in his heart, would then have cried out some sort of challenge and dealt with the situation as it evolved, including shooting if it was really necessary. Instead, Pistorius, who had taken no steps to ascertain where Steenkamp was, fired four shots, aimed to kill – not incapacitate – anyone standing behind the door. He succeeded in his intention and the court has correctly convicted him of murder. Who did he think was there? In a married life spanning more than 60 years, I have always slept in a double bed with my spouse and have almost always been conscious if she got up in the night. I suggest the same applied to Pistorius, whose sob story in mitigation of sentence includes the probable myth that he thought Steenkamp was still in their bed.

If we are to be asked to picture Pistorius as a poor, frightened and handicapped victim, justified in blasting off killing shots at this imaginary intruder, may we not legitimately ask why he did not get the management of the complex where he lived to put bars on the bathroom window, if not all the windows, to prevent such incidents? It would never have refused this request. The whole world was impressed by Pistorius’s courage and determination to overcome his handicaps, and his laudable success was finally amply rewarded in terms of both admiration and wealth. His fame however does not absolve him from paying the proper penalty for murder. Let us hope that this appeal by the state for the justice of a more realistic sentence is successful.