Oscar Pistorius finally receives his sentence
"Murder is a serious offence, even if it was a case of mistaken identity" – Judge Thokozile Masipa.
Three years after fatally shooting his model girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius has finally received his sentence: six years’ imprisonment.
In September last year, Pistorius was found guilty of the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp and reckless endangerment with a firearm at a restaurant.
In October that same year, he received a prison sentence of a maximum of five years for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended prison sentence for the separate reckless endangerment conviction.
The South African Court of Appeal heard the case in November 2015, and by December his conviction was upgraded to murder. He was granted a bail of R10 000 and placed under house arrest, as he was not considered to be a flight risk.
Following the sentence he received today, Pistorius will go directly to jail. It is not clear yet how much of the six-year sentence he will be compelled to serve in prison before he will once again be eligible for parole.
“A long term of imprisonment will not serve justice in this matter. The accused has already served 12 months, he is a first offender and he is not likely to re-offend,” said presiding Judge Thokozile Masipa.
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