Oscar Pistorius faces a parole listening to that may determine if he can be free of jail, a decade after he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The former Olympic and Paralympic athlete, generally known as the Blade Runner, has utilized for parole and may very well be free of jail inside weeks after serving half of his 13-year-five-month sentence.
A parole board, which can begin its listening to immediately, should decide if Pistorius can be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence on licence at his uncle’s dwelling in South African capital metropolis, Pretoria.
A spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services mentioned: “The board must determine whether the purpose of imprisonment has been served.”
A call is anticipated to be introduced in days or even weeks.
His six-month televised trial in 2014 caught the eye of viewers everywhere in the world – lower than two years after he made historical past on the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Here, Sky News seems again at Pistorius’s rise and fall.
First double-leg amputee on the Olympics
Oscar Pistorius was born with each fibulas (the smallest of the 2 decrease leg bones) lacking, which resulted in docs amputating his legs beneath the knee at 11 months outdated.
Six months after the operation he was given his first pair of prosthetics – a second he claims in his autobiography Blade Runner outlined the remainder of his life.
“I believe that it was at this time in my life that my personality was shaped, and that my family was instrumental in laying the foundation stones of my competitive nature, and of the man that I am today,” he wrote within the late 2000s.
He confirmed little sporting prowess at first however was all the time informed by his dad and mom he may obtain simply as a lot as his able-bodied friends.
When he reached non-public secondary faculty he obtained entry to higher high quality, lighter prosthetics that allowed him to maneuver sooner.
He did long-distance operating, performed rugby, and water polo – however on the age of 16 shattered his knee throughout a rugby recreation.
Frustrated by the sluggish restoration, he was suggested to interchange endurance operating with sprinting to ease the strain on his joints.
Three weeks after his first dash he competed in a 100m race, successful with the perfect time of any double amputee ever.
Months later, within the autumn of 2004, he competed in his first Paralympics in Athens – successful the 200m gold.
The pleasure constructed round his potential and his race outcomes made him more and more decided to compete towards non-disabled athletes.
In 2007 he ran towards able-bodied rivals for the primary time – a 400m contest in Rome – the place he completed second.
But athletics officers had been involved and a media debate started to query whether or not his ‘blades’ gave him an unfair benefit.
In 2008 he was devastated by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF)’s resolution to ban them, however a bitter authorized dispute resulted in him having the ruling revoked on enchantment by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Although he was now in a position to compete within the Olympics, he did not qualify for Beijing.
But in 2011 on the World Championships he grew to become the primary amputee to win a medal for a non-disabled world observe occasion.
Solidifying his standing because the Blade Runner, he competed at London 2012 as the primary double-leg amputee within the historical past of the Olympics. He then received gold on the Paralympics.
In November that yr he met Reeva Steenkamp via a mutual buddy and instantly requested her to be his date for an award ceremony that night.
Trainee lawyer Steenkamp was ‘greater than a mannequin’
Reeva Steenkamp was two years older than her then boyfriend.
She was born in Cape Town however moved to Port Elizabeth the place at 15 she was scouted by an agent at a faculty magnificence pageant.
While her modelling profession appeared promising, she went to college to review regulation in case issues did not work out.
Successive jobs noticed her dye her naturally darkish hair blonde and transfer to Johannesburg to seek out her fortune.
She did journal shoots for the likes of FHM, however these near her described her as “more than a model” – right down to earth and never significantly fame hungry.
Alongside shoots she was nonetheless pursuing regulation and in 2011 utilized to the bar – whereas her TV profession additionally took off with a daily slot on a actuality present.
She met Pistorius at a motorsport occasion in November 2012 and the pair shortly began a relationship.
Three months later he shot and killed her at his dwelling in Pretoria.
Valentine’s Day 2013
In the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 emergency providers had been scrambled to Pistorius’s high-security compound in Pretoria.
He informed them he had shot Ms Steenkamp, 29, via a closed lavatory door, having mistaken her for an intruder.
She was pronounced lifeless on the scene and Pistorius, 27, was arrested on suspicion of her homicide.
His trial started on 3 March 2014 at Pretoria’s High Court.
With cameras allowed to movie South African trials, the world watched because the prosecution laid out its timeline of occasions.
On the night of 13 February, neighbours claimed that they had heard the couple arguing, one thing Pistorius denied.
He claimed they each went to mattress round 10pm however struggled to sleep because of the warmth.
In the early hours of the following morning Ms Steenkamp went to the lavatory.
While the prosecution claimed she had gone there to flee him following the argument – Pistorius insisted he did not hear her get off the bed and mistook her sounds for these of a burglar.
Frightened for his life, the amputee mentioned he took the 9mm pistol he saved below his mattress and ran with out his prosthetic legs alongside the hall to the lavatory.
When he discovered the door locked he shot 4 instances via it.
The defence informed jurors he went again to the bed room to placed on his legs when he realised Ms Steenkamp was nowhere to be discovered earlier than returning to interrupt down the door with a cricket bat.
But dramatic reconstructions in courtroom proved he was nonetheless strolling on his stumps when he used the bat.
The prosecution additionally claimed neighbours had heard Ms Steenkamp scream earlier than the sound of 4 gunshots, which advised Pistorius knew who he was capturing.
TV trial brings reconstructions, vomit and tears
The trial attracted thousands and thousands of viewers from all over the world – to learn how Pistorius had gone from Olympic and Paralympic glory to being accused of homicide in a matter of months.
It lasted for six months, of which Pistorius gave testimony for every week.
The athlete often broke down in tears and vomited a number of instances because the pathologist who carried out the autopsy examination on Ms Steenkamp’s physique gave graphic descriptions of her accidents.
At one stage, the prosecution displayed distressing photographs of her corpse by mistake.
Memorably, the prosecution staged a number of reconstructions of the night time of the homicide, which noticed Pistorius pressured to stroll on his stumps across the courtroom room.
Its key argument was the peak of the marks on the lavatory door.
According to the prosecution, screams heard by neighbours got here from Ms Steenkamp earlier than she was shot.
But the defence claimed they had been from Pistorius as soon as he realised what had occurred. They additionally alleged that the 4 ‘gunshots’ had been the sounds of him breaking down the door with the cricket bat.
Pistorius mentioned this was performed after he put his prosthetics again on – however specialists proved the bat marks had been according to him nonetheless having been on his stumps.
A video initially unearthed by Sky News of Pistorius at a capturing vary being proven to the jury was one other key second.
In it he seems at a watermelon he makes use of as a goal and says: “It’s not as soft as brains but f*** it is a zombie stopper.”
The chief prosecutor pressured the athlete to take a look at the images of Ms Steenkamp’s accidents, saying: “You saw how the bullet made the watermelon explode. You know the same thing happened to Reeva’s head.”
Other firearm incidents, together with capturing a gun inside a restaurant, had been additionally used towards him.
There was a month-long interruption of proceedings when the courtroom adjourned to contemplate whether or not Pistorius was mentally in poor health – however in the end he was proved medically match.
Culpable murder conviction upgraded to homicide
On 12 September jurors discovered him responsible of the lesser cost of culpable murder – South Africa’s equal of manslaughter.
Addressing the Steenkamp household he mentioned: “I wake up every morning and you’re the first people I think of, the first people I pray for.
“I can not think about the ache and the sorrow and the vacancy that I’ve brought about you and your loved ones. I used to be merely attempting to guard Reeva. I can promise that when she went to mattress that night time she felt beloved.”
The following month he returned to court for sentencing and was given five years.
He solely served a yr earlier than he was launched from jail to serve the rest below home arrest.
Prosecutors and the Steenkamp household had been outraged and filed an enchantment.
The courtroom finally agreed and in late 2015 upgraded his cost to homicide earlier than his sentence elevated to 6 years in mid-2016.
Still unhappy, given he would quickly be eligible for parole, prosecutors appealed towards the “shockingly lenient” six-year sentence imposed by the unique trial choose.
In late 2017 it was lastly doubled to 13 years and 5 months.
Pistorius lodged an unsuccessful enchantment to get the unique cost and sentence reinstated – however failed in April 2018.
Steenkamp household: ‘He killed her out of anger’
There was some uncertainty over when Pistorius would have served half his sentence – and subsequently be eligible for launch.
The courtroom had dominated that his time period needs to be backdated to the start of his unique sentence in October 2014, which he argued meant he was eligible from February 2021.
Others had been arguing it could not be till 2024.
Meanwhile an NBC Dateline documentary, The Rise and Fall of Oscar Pistorius, drew widespread criticism over claims of bias in direction of the previous Paralympian.
It additionally emerged final yr that Pistorius had met Ms Steenkamp’s father Barry as a part of South Africa’s restorative justice programme or “victim-offender dialogue”.
He and Ms Steenkamp’s mom appeared on ITV’s This Morning to mark the 10-year anniversary of their daughter’s demise.
Mr Steenkamp mentioned the household believes “he killed her out of anger” and that he lower the assembly brief as he “didn’t get the answers I wanted”.
He described the expertise as “traumatising”, whereas his spouse mentioned she selected to jot down him a letter as a substitute for concern of “what I would do if I went there”.
“He had taken the most precious thing that we got from God, I wrote to him all the things he’d taken away from us, Reeva’s wedding, her wedding dress, she never got to do her law degree,” she informed the present.
“We just love her and miss her so much, a part of our life has gone… but we’ll see her one day and that’s what we look forward to.”
The International Paralympic and Olympic Committees haven’t dominated to forestall Pistorius competing professionally once more as soon as he’s out.
Source: information.sky.com”