OSCAR Pistorius offered 375,000 South African rand (£21,000) to the family of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after he killed her, but they rejected it because they did not want ‘blood money’, the double-amputee athlete's sentencing hearing has been told.

Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel also referred to separate monthly payments of 6,000 rand (£340) that Pistorius apparently made to Blackburn-born June Steenkamp and her husband Barry after they asked for help.

Lancashire Telegraph: Oscar Pistorius trial

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Mr Nel said those payments would be returned in full.

The revelations emerged while Mr Nel was cross-examining a social worker over what Pistorius’ punishment should be for shooting his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Annette Vergeer told the court in Pretoria that the Olympic and Paralympic runner should be placed under house arrest, rather than sent to prison, after he was found guilty of culpable homicide. Ms Vergeer, one of four witnesses called by the defence, said South African jails are violent and overcrowded, and that the double amputee would be vulnerable because of his disability and fragile mental state resulting from the night he fired four times through a toilet door in his home, killing Ms Steenkamp.

Pistorius claimed he mistook her for an intruder, and denied prosecution assertions that he shot her during an argument.

Ms Vergeer also said that Pistorius – who in 2012 became the first amputee athlete to run at the Olympics – has the potential to be a productive member of society again. Prison ‘will not assist him, but will break him as a person,’ she said.

Lancashire Telegraph: Reeva Steenkamp

Outside the courtroom, a lawyer for Ms Steenkamp’s parents said they had asked him to contact Pistorius’ legal team weeks after the shooting because they were struggling financially.

Pistorius offered them monthly payments and asked for them to be kept confidential, the Steenkamps’ lawyer Dup de Bruyn said.

Ms Steenkamp’s mother June, who grew up in Blackburn before emigrating as an adult, referred to the other offer of 375,000 rand that the family rejected as ‘blood money’, and asked prosecutor Mr Nel to call it that in court, Mr de Bruyn said.

Judge Thokozile Masipa found Pistorius, 27, not guilty of murder last month.

The hearing continues.