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Oscar Pistorius arrives for sentencing

Oscar Pistorius arrived at the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday ahead of his sentencing for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.


He arrived in a white Range Rover, and was briskly escorted to the entrance by a group of police officers, while media and members of the public swarmed around him.

Earlier, Steenkamp’s mother June greeted the media as she made her way to the entrance with her husband, Barry.

Pistorius’s father Henke briefly told the media when he arrived: “I believe he [Pistorius] is fine.”

Judge Thokozile Masipa is expected to hand down her sentence at 9.30am, after finding the paralympian guilty of culpable homicide last month.

Earlier, Barry Roux, counsel for Pistorius, waited in a queue outside court GD along with the media and members of the African National Congress Womens League.

Pistorius uncle Arnold, while waiting in the queue shouted and asked one of the security guards to let him in. However, he, his wife and Pistorius’s psychologist Lore Hartzenberg only managed to take a few steps forward. They were let in several minutes later.

Security guards later announced that there was no more place for the public in court.

When Pistorius arrived, he bypassed the queue and was escorted directly into the court room.

Earlier, two paramedics carried a yellow stretcher to the side entrance, and also brought a folding bed and a white screen.

On September 12, Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide for the Valentine’s Day 2013 shooting of Steenkamp. The court found him not guilty of murdering her.

Pistorius was also found guilty of firing a shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Johannesburg in January 2013.

He was found not guilty of shooting through the open sunroof of a car in Modderfontein on September 30, 2012, and of illegal possession of ammunition.

Sapa

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