14 September,2014 07:54 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Oscar Pistorius' former girlfriend says she feared for her life while dating the Paralympian before Steenkamp
Samantha Taylor and Oscar Pistorius
One of the ex-girlfriends of paralympian sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was convicted on Friday for shooting dead his lover Reeva Steenkamp, says that she could well have been Pistorius' victim long before.
Pistorius' ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor. Pic/Taylor's Instagram account
"I definitely thought it could've been me," Samantha Taylor told ABC News in an interview for TV show 20/20 recently.
Sad Valentine's Day
Steenkamp was shot and killed on Valentine's Day 2013 and though prosecutors alleged Pistorius had intentionally shot his model girlfriend, the double-amputee maintained he thought he was firing at an intruder instead.
After a lengthy trial, the Paralympian was cleared of intentional murder but found guilty of culpable homicide on Friday. The sentence will be announced on October 13.
Johannesburg-based Taylor (20) said that when the news of Steenkamp's death emerged, she received numerous "rest in peace" messages "because people thought it was me."
Taylor said she dated Pistorius before he met Steenkamp. At his murder trial, Taylor was a prosecution witness.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius listens to the verdict in his trial at the Pretoria High Court on Thursday. Pic/AFP
She claimed that even though Pistorius said in his testimony that his bedroom was pitch dark so he didn't see Steenkamp go to the bathroom, in fact, he never kept his room dark.
"He usually slept with the curtains fairly open. He always had some light coming in," said Taylor, who was only 17 when she met Pistorius (then 24) for the first time at a rugby match in 2010. She found him very charming.
'Oscar was aggressive'
However, with time, she saw his aggressive side. She said he would get angry at her for little things, like not taking her plate to the kitchen.
"He used to often look through my phone, ask me who my friends were. I think he had that control over who's in my life and who's not. I was his."
Taylor also confirmed that Pistorius carried a gun almost always. "He had a passion for guns. It was a part of him."
