South African Paralympic athlethe, Oscar Pistorius was today sentenced to six years imprisonment for the murder his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp at his home three years ago on Valentine’s Day. High Court judge, Thokozile Masipa gave several mitigating reasons for the light sentence, which is less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder. They included the athlete’s claim he believed he was shooting an intruder and his disability.
“The sentence that I impose on the accused… is six years imprisonment,” she said.
Pistorius, 29, hugged his family before being taken out of the court in Pretoria to begin his jail term.
The double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic sprinter had been freed from prison last October after serving one year of a five-year sentence for the equivalent of manslaughter. However the Appeal Court disagreed and upgraded his conviction to murder in December.
Pistorius shot Steenkamp, a model, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, claiming that he mistook her for a burglar. He fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
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