Slain model's parents 'horrified' by Oscar Pistorius movie

Barry (left) and June Steenkamp, father and mother of late South African model Reeva Steenkamp. PHOTO: AFP

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The parents of Reeva Steenkamp, the model shot dead by Oscar Pistorius, expressed outrage Monday over an upcoming US film about how the Paralympic athlete gunned down their daughter.

June and Barry Steenkamp said they were "horrified and upset" at reports that the film claimed to tell the story of the 2013 killing from the perspective of Reeva and June, her mother.

The Steenkamps stressed they had not collaborated in the project or knew anything about it being made, and said they were still in mourning for their daughter.

"Any impression that is created that this is June's view, or that the movie is endorsed by the Steenkamp family, is untrue and incorrect," they said in a statement.

A trailer for the movie - titled Blade Runner Killer - was released on Monday, showing Pistorius and Steenkamp in bed, having arguments before her death and Pistorius opening fire.

Pistorius, 30, is serving a six-year jail term for murder over the killing of Steenkamp in his house in the South African capital Pretoria in the early hours of Valentine's Day 2013.

He has always maintained that he mistook her for an intruder when he fired four high-calibre bullets through a locked toilet cubicle.

Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level when he appeared at the London 2012 games.

In 2016, an appeals court upgraded his manslaughter conviction to murder.

The South African state is pushing for a longer sentence, with the case due to be heard in court on Nov 3.

Pistorius vomited in the dock as details of his girlfriend's death were examined during his seven-month trial in 2014 that attracted fevered global attention.

The film, which stars German model Toni Garrn as Steenkamp, is due to have a TV premiere on the Lifetime network in the US on Nov 11.

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