Oscar Pistorius
Reeva Steenkamp's parents insist they will never accept Oscar Pistorius' argument that he mistakenly killed their daughter.
But June and Barry Steenkamp welcome the decision to jail Pistorius for five years for shooting his girlfriend Reeva on Valentine's Day 2013.
Pistorius' defence team argued that the athlete lacked a motive for the pre-meditated killing of Steenkamp and that the couple were in a loving relationship. Pistorius had shot Steenkamp believing her to be an intruder and therefore her death was a terrible mistake.
Pistorius, the first double amputee Paralympian to compete against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, was ordered to serve a maximum five years in prison for culpable homicide on Tuesday after a seven-month trial.
The South African athlete was cleared of murder but convicted of culpable homicide by Judge Thokozile Masipa on September 12.
In an interview with June and her husband, Barry, on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Reeva's parents said they did not believe the argument that the killing of their daughter was an accident.
AFP quoted June as saying in the interview, "We don't want revenge, we want a fair punishment under the circumstances on his disabilities.
"We wouldn't have wanted him to go to jail and be abused and I feel that he will realise that he can't go around doing that, he can't kill someone like that."
She added, We're very settled with the sentence.
"We may not feel that justice has been done, but we have just got to accept what the judge decided.
"Not everyone is entirely happy… the facts that she (the judge) had before her maybe weren't enough. But we have to live."
Her husband Barry also said the family had to go along with what Judge Thokozile Masipa had decided.
"Only Oscar knows whether that sentence is acceptable to him," he said.
"I've got my feelings to the whole thing. But we do accept what the judge handed down."
Meanwhile, South African legal experts have backed Pistorius' five-year sentence.
"It's a sentence befitting the conviction, it's not extraordinary by any stretch," AFP quoted Johannesburg lawyer David Dadic as saying.
"I don't think it's too harsh," he said, citing examples of recent cases of culpable homicide involving multiple deaths that attracted an eight-year jail term.
By sending him to jail, the judge has sent a clear message that people understand that "mistakes like these cannot go without any consequence".
"I don't think that correctional supervision or a suspended sentence would have sent that message."
Another lawyer Tyron Maseko said given the seriousness of the crime, the sentence is "a very good decision, very balanced".
Criminal law expert Kessie Naidoo said, "It seems to me it's not a highly disproportionate sentence."
