Steenkamps paying back money: Lawyer

"They needed the money, they needed to live, but they are going to pay the money back," Dup du Bruyn told reporters after sentencing procedures in the High Court in Pretoria.

 

"When he [Pistorius] initially offered the money they accepted the offer because they needed the money but they will return it now," Du Bruyn said.

 

"When he started giving them money the Steenkamps wanted to disclose it but Mr Pistorius wanted to keep it quiet."

 

Du Bruyn said the monthly payments started in March last year and the last payment was made in September.

 

Earlier the court heard that Steenkamp's mother June, rejected R375,000 Pistorius offered the family.

 

"She rejects that, she doesn't want blood money," prosecutor Gerrie Nel told parole officer and social worker Annette Vergeer during cross-examination.

 

Du Bruyn said plans for civil claims against Pistorius had been abandoned.

 

"Mr and Mrs Steenkamp do not want any money, the offer has been made and it has been rejected," Du Bruyn said.

 

"There will be no civil case. They want closure and they want this to be over."

 

He said that he had made certain deals but would not elaborate on what the deals were.

 

On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on for the Valentine's Day 2013, shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse. The court found him not guilty of murdering Steenkamp.

 

Pistorius shot Steenkamp through the locked door of the toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder about to emerge and attack him. She was hit in the hip, arm, and head.

 

Pistorius was found guilty of firing a pistol under a table at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013 and not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012.