Oscar might cough up R3m to family

LEGAL teams for South African paralympic star Oscar Pistorius and his slain girlfriend’s family are discussing an out-of-court financial settlement over her murder, a lawyer said yesterday.

“Negotiations are under way,” lawyer Dup de Bruyn, who is representing the Port Elizabeth relatives of the murdered Reeva Steenkamp, said.

The compensation talks do not affect Pistorius’s upcoming murder trial, which is set to start on March 3.

De Bruyn declined to give any details but media report the 26-year-old athlete may pay as much as R3-million after shooting dead his lover last Valentine’s Day. The 29-year-old model and law graduate was supporting her parents financially and they have been struggling since her death.

Pistorius denies murder, saying he shot his girlfriend through a locked bathroom door in his upmarket Pretoria home because he thought she was an intruder.

Lawyers reportedly have been talking for months about a possible settlement, which could preempt a civil damages case by the Steenkamps, in a legal move that would be separate from the murder trial.   – AFP