Steenkamp family reject Pistorius $34k ‘blood money’ offer

Oscar Pistorius offered $34,000 (€26,857) to the family of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after he killed her, but the family rejected the funds because they did not want "blood money", a prosecutor said at the sentencing hearing for the double-amputee athlete.

Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel also referred to separate payments of $550 that the Pistorius camp apparently made on a monthly basis to Steenkamp’s family, but said those would be paid back in full.

The revelations emerged while Nel was cross-examining a social worker who testified that Pistorius should be placed under house arrest, rather than sent to prison, after his conviction for culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter here.