The father of Leigh Matthews – the younger scholar who was kidnapped and murdered in 2004 – has shared his expertise with the household of Reeva Steenkamp amid their daughter’s killer Oscar Pistorius changing into eligible for parole.
The father of the Bond University scholar shared his views on half one in every of M-Net docu-series My Name Is Reeva this week.
In the primary episode on Thursday night time, the distraught dad recounts his personal expertise earlier this yr after Leigh’s assassin Donovan Moodley turned eligible for parole.
Reeva was shot and killed at her Paralympian boyfriend’s Pretoria residence on 14 February 2014. A decade earlier in 2004, the bare physique of Leigh Matthews was discovered after being kidnapped and murdered.
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LEIGH MATTHEWS’S DAD MEETS WITH REEVA’S PARENTS
Speaking on digicam, Leigh Matthews’s dad Bob revealed that he had reached out to Reeva Steenkamp’s mother and father June and Barry. This, amid information Oscar Pistorius has develop into eligible for parole after serving half his homicide sentence.
In June, Oscar met with Reeva’s dad Barry Steenkamp as a part of the Correctional Service’s Victim Offender Dialogue. The assembly is a part of the division’s “restorative justice process” between the offender and the sufferer’s household.
June rejected the chance to face her daughter’s killer.
Similarly, the mother and father of Leigh Matthews are additionally contending with their daughter’s killer’s parole course of. In January, the household of the 21-year-old scholar contested Donovan Moodley’s parole.
Bob mentioned: “For us, it was extremely traumatic and I assumed that possibly as mother and father we might attain out to one another and share a few of our experiences. Because it’s very lonely on the market.
“I feel the parole system is damaged as a result of there is not sufficient funding put into this course of. So it’s virtually the tail wagging the canine. This course of could make or break you.
ALSO READ: ‘I don’t need to see him’: Reeva’s mother refused Oscar Pistorius parole meet
Of the mum or dad’s involvement within the parole course of, Leigh’s dad claimed: “What you’re doing is to your cherished that that is not with you.
“That day is a flood of recollections that come via. But it’s a must to bear in mind what you’re doing, to ensure the perpetrator of the crime doesn’t get an early launch primarily based on one thing that they aren’t deserving of.
“You have to put your story forward in a convincing way to the parole board so that they have a full understanding of the hurt that you as a family are going through”.
OSCAR PISTORIUS AND DONOVAN MOODLEY’S PAROLE PROCESS
After a a lot publicised trial, Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable murder in December 2015. He was handed a six-year jail sentence. However, his cost was modified to homicide, and his jail time period elevated to 13 years following an unsuccessful attraction in November 2017.
The 35-year-old is now eligible for parole after serving half his sentence.
Like Oscar, Donovan Moodley additionally had a media frenzy surrounding his homicide trial. In 2005, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for homicide, 15 years for kidnapping and 10 years for extortion. Moodley’s sentence runs concurrently.
In 2021, 17 years after Leigh’s homicide, IOL reported that Donovan Moodley was up for a parole listening to.
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In January 2022, the household of Leigh Matthews hotly contested the method as a part of their mediation. Ultimately, Moodley was denied parole.
Speaking to media gathered outdoors the Johannesburg Correctional Facility, Rob Matthews mentioned: “The truth of the matter is 17 years later, Moodley has not changed. He is still the same lying, conniving, deceitful individual”.
Rob claimed that there have been nonetheless a number of unanswered questions surrounding his daughter’s kidnapping and dying. He added that Moodley had proven “no remorse” amid 5 unsuccessful appeals to his sentence.
In the second instalment of the My Name Is Reeva, which will likely be aired on Thursday 1 September, we are able to count on to listen to what transpired within the assembly between Reeva’s father and Oscar Pistorius.
