South African ‘Blade Runner’ Pistorius granted parole
JOHANNESBURG—South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, jailed in 2014 for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, was granted parole effective from Jan. 5, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday.
Known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, Pistorius went from a public hero as a Paralympic champion to a convicted killer in hearings that caught the world’s attention a decade ago.
Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
He was initially jailed for five years in 2014 for culpable homicide by a high court but the Supreme Court of Appeal in late 2015 found him guilty of murder after an appeal by prosecutors.
He was sent back to jail for six years in 2016, less than half the 15-year minimum term sought by prosecutors.
In 2017, the Supreme Court more than doubled his sentence to 13 years and five months, saying the six-year jail term was “shockingly lenient.”
The high-profile murder trial exposed the now 37-year-old’s darker side: offering glimpses of a dangerously volatile man with a penchant for guns, beautiful women and fast cars.
In 2009, he had spent a night in jail after allegedly assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a party in a case that was settled out of court.
Two years later, he was accused of firing a gun through the sunroof of an ex-girlfriend’s moving car.
Weeks before he shot Steenkamp, he discharged a gun by accident at a Johannesburg restaurant.
Steenkamp’s mother, June, said in March she does not believe Pistorius has told the truth about what happened. —reports from REUTERS, AFP
