The four-part series looks at the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Photo / Getty Images
The four-part series looks at the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Photo / Getty Images
Reeva Steenkamp's family today slammed an "insensitive" new Amazon Prime documentary into her murder for showing the grisly crime scene photos of her dead body.
Reeva's sister also blasted the the four-part series Pistorius for using pictures of a blood spattered bathroom and hallway as well as a close-up of the gun used to kill her.
Model Reeva, 29, was shot dead by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, the shamed Paralympian, on Valentine's Day 2013 at their home in Pretoria, South Africa. Pistorius is now serving 13-years in prison for murder.
Reeva's sister Simone Cowburn has questioned why, five years after the case, did the documentary makers feel it necessary to show graphic images of her sister including one of her lying dead on the floor, which MailOnline has chosen not to publish.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she said: "My parents are not young at all. I am worried this will have a terrible effect on them. My father has been really unwell recently and has heart problems.
"My question is how did these documentary people get their hands on police photographs of my sister's body?
"I don't believe it is necessary to show blood stains on the walls. All this was told as evidence at Oscar's trial.
"If his family are involved and trying to get him a reduced sentence, I hope it fails. He needs to stay in prison for a long time for the way he killed my sister.
"I don't understand why his film has been made. She was killed five years ago and you would think that everything that needed to be said has been said now.
"I spend a lot of time shielding my parents from what is on the internet about Reeva. We don't need pictures of her blood stains to be seen at all after such a long time."
Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his sentencing hearing. Photo / Getty Images
The documentary's writer and Producer Sean Richard told MailOnline: "These are truly tragic events, which took place in front of the glare of the world media.
"As filmmakers we set out to tell the story as objectively as possible."
Among archive court footage used in the four-hour series is a plea from her father, Barry Steenkamp, for the crime scene pictures to be made public.
Mr Steenkamp says: "What I would like the world to see are the wounds inflicted onto Reeva and the pain she must have gone through."
Pistorius, directed by Vaughan Sivell, charts the dramatic rise and fall of the one-time track hero who stunned millions around the globe when he killed his girlfriend by firing four times through a locked toilet door in the middle of the night.
The 31-year Paralympian – known as the Blade Runner because of his distinctive running blades – claimed throughout his trial that he mistook Reeva for an intruder.
However the prosecution argued that he murdered her after losing control during a heated argument.
Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide – the South African equivalent to manslaughter - and sentenced to just five years but the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and found him guilty of murder.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2016, which was increased to 13-years and four months last December.
The documentary reveals for the first time that a mysterious picture message was sent to Pistorius' phone shortly before the murder which may have sparked a fierce row between him and Reeva.
Previously, it was thought that Pistorius had reacted in a jealous rage to a message on Reeva's phone but the series suggests it may have been the other way around.
Phone records obtained by the production crew show that he received a message at 1.48am on the morning of February 14, 2013 – just 10 minutes neighbours said they heard shouting come from Pistorius' home.
His mobile was later sent off for analysis by police and found to have been connected to a computer owned by Pistorius' brother, Carl.
Recalling how police suspected Carl had wiped the phone clean, journalist Toby Shapshak tells the documentary: "When the phone comes back eventually and the information on the phone is accessed it shows that the phone has been plugged into a computer called 'titaniumhulk', which is the Twitter handle of his brother Carl.
"Now if we look at the data usage of his phone at that time, in the middle of all this there is a very suspicious amount of data and it is at 1.48am in the morning that the duration of the data connection is 309 seconds, which is 5minutes an 15 seconds and it amounts to 58kb.
"If that was one individual message it would probably be a photograph or a WhatsApp message.
"The interesting thing about this is that it's about 10 minutes before one of his neighbour's says she hears a lot of arguing."
Author Melinda Ferguson, who has written a biography on Pistorius, tells the documentary: "Most people think 'Oh Reeva was so beautiful, I'm sure Oscar was so jealous of Reeva and she must have been cheating". But what happens if it was the other way round?
"What happens if it was Oscar who was cheating? And it was Reeva who was insecure and jealous, feeling like her relationship was falling apart?
"So for me it's really interesting to think of it the other way, that it was Reeva who was trying to see what messages were being sent to Oscar's phone."
