Oscar Pistorious been sentenced to six years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The South African was released from prison last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide (manslaughter). However, an appeals court found that he should have been convicted of murder after shooting Steenkamp four times on Valentine’s Day 2013.
The fresh sentencing hearing today was presided upon by Judge Thokozile Masipa. She told the court that she found there were more mitigating than aggravating factors in the case and, therefore, she should deviate from the 15-year prescribed sentence for murder.
In her hour-long judgement, she outlined why she found there to be compelling and substantial circumstances in this case.
In her concluding remarks, she described Pistorius’s wish to perform community service as noble but added that punished is “not what you choose to do” but is “something that is imposed on you”.
