GettyOscar Pistorius is likely to receive less than the minimum 15-year prison sentence for murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, legal sources have claimed.
The disgraced Paralympian is due to be sentenced on Wednesday for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva, three years ago at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.
He was was freed from prison last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide. Since his release, he has lived under restrictions at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.
GettyBut an appeals court later changed the conviction to murder – which has a minimum standard sentence of 15 years. Due to his time already spent in jail and his disability, however, it’s likely he’ll be given a lesser term, the Daily Mail reports.
The 29-year-old shot Steenkamp dead in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar. He fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.
His sentence comes three weeks after he shocked a court hearing by walking on stumps.
On day three of his sentencing, former Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius removed his prosthetic legs and hobbled through the court room in a bid to prove his ‘vulnerability’ during the incident. His lawyers argued he should not return to jail on account of his anxiety disorder and depression.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8xicwOVCIc
Ulrich Roux, who is unaffiliated with the case but has followed it closely, told AFP:
I don’t think he will get the 15 years.
His personal circumstances and the disability will be taken into account. One possibility is that part of the sentence may be suspended.
If he does not receive the minimum 15 year sentence, it seems as though Pristorius will dedicate his life to charity – or so he claims.
YouTubeIn his first interview since the killing, the shamed Paralympian said that he believed Steenkamp would want him to devote his life to charity rather than return to prison.
He said:
If I was afforded the opportunity of redemption, I would like to help the less fortunate.
I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me that she would want me to live that life.
It’s yet to be seen if Pristorius will receive less than the minimum sentence for killing Reeva Steenkamp, but if he is jailed on Wednesday, he would likely return to the hospital section of Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in the capital Pretoria, separated from the general population of inmates.
