"Oscar deserves 10-20 years in prison" - Reeva Steenkamp's sister begs Judge
Reeva Steenkamp's sister has watched with growing disbelief as Oscar Pistorius's lawyers insist he deserves special treatment.Day after day, as the Olympian's defence team demanded house arrest instead of jail for the shooting of his model girlfriend, community service instead of hard labour,
Simone Cowburn is deeply worried. the judge has been swayed by Pistorius's highly paid legal team.
Simone is now making a deeply personal plea to Judge Thokozile Masipa: hand down a heavy prison sentence to show violence against women will not be tolerated and to show that disability should not result in a softer punishment.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she says ...
'Oscar deserves prison. How can he just stay in the luxury of his house after taking somebody's life. What is house arrest if not just wrong?Community service and house arrest are ridiculous. These should be for people who are stealing or other minor offences. Not shooting somebody. Reeva deserves justice.
'This case will set a precedent all around the world. We do not want other men to get off just because Oscar Pistorius has. It is still homicide. If a man steals a block of cheese here, he can get 20 years and that is for theft. But if you take somebody's life like Oscar has, you can get house arrest. It is not right. He has got to do time. It is hard to say how long he should get. Ten or twenty years or whatever.'
'I don't think much of the story of him being disabled and that there is no room for disability in prison and that he must get house arrestIt is not right. He has been on bail since the shooting. He has been free to go anywhere he wants... chatting up other women.
He went into the Olympics and competed against other [able-bodied] athletes and he shouldn't use his disability as an excuse now. He should be punished like any other able bodied person. He shouldn't be given privileges now.[Are they saying that] if you are missing an arm or a leg or whatever, you don't go to jail? They should put him in a wheelchair. There are people with disabilities in prison.
I was in court and he showed no remorse whatsoever. The crying, the vomiting and all that type of thing were because he realises he has done wrong, but I believe it was all an act.
