Pistorius sentencing date set

A SOUTH AFRICAN court has finalised the date for the sentencing of former Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.

The sentencing will begin on June 13 and continue until June 17, confirmed the High Court Judge Aubrey Ledwaba.

The former Paralympic and Olympic gold medallist sprinter briefly appeared in court to hear when sentencing would take place, as he faces a minimum sentence of 15 years behind bars.

Pistorius’ original sentence of ‘culpable homicide’, which is similar to the UK’s charge of manslaughter, saw him sentenced to five years in prison.

Although in December, the Supreme Court decided that the conviction of ‘culpable homicide’ should be upgraded to murder after ruling that the original trial was fundamentally flawed.

Although Pistorius was due to appeal his murder conviction, three months after the trial, the country’s top court rejected this prospect.

Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp in Pretoria, at his home, on Valentine’s Day 2013.

During the dramatic televised murder trial, Pistorius maintained that he fired out of fear for his life as he believed there was an intruder in his home, although the prosecution always maintained that he intentionally shot his girlfriend four times through the bathroom door, leaving Steenkamp with ‘nowhere to hide’.

Pistorius did start to serve his original sentence of five years and was also provisionally ‘freed’ to serve part of the sentence under house arrest.