{{South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has spoken of his sorrow over the fatal shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp exactly a year ago.}}<\/p>\n
In a statement on his website, he said: “The loss of Reeva and the complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”<\/p>\n
Mr Pistorius is due to go on trial for her murder in Pretoria in March.<\/p>\n
He claims he mistook her for an intruder when he shot her through the toilet door on Valentine’s Day 2013.<\/p>\n
State prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated following a fight between the couple. He could face life imprisonment if found guilty of the charge.<\/p>\n
The rare statement by the Paralympic sprint star was dated 14 February 2014 and read:<\/p>\n
“No words can adequately capture my feelings about the devastating accident that has caused such heartache for everyone who truly loved – and continues to love – Reeva.<\/p>\n
“The pain and sadness – especially for Reeva’s parents, family and friends – consumes me with sorrow.<\/p>\n
“The loss of Reeva and the complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Oscar.”<\/p>\n
He had linked to his statement through his Twitter account with the message: “A few words from my heart.”<\/p>\n
Reeva Steenkamp’s uncle said there would be a private family gathering near Cape Town to mark the anniversary of her death, though her parents and brothers would not attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has spoken of his sorrow over the fatal shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp exactly a year ago.}} In a statement on his website, he said: “The loss of Reeva and the complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life.” Mr Pistorius […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050338,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12528.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12528"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12528"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}