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Reuters
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South African Paralympic athlete Oscar
Pistorius has been sentenced to five years in prison for the negligent killing
of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.
"Count one, culpable homicide,
the sentence imposed is five years," said Judge Thokozile Masipa, who read
out the sentence at the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Pistorius was
also given a three-year suspended sentence on a separate gun charge,
Reuters reports.
Pistorius, who had vomited and wept
at times during the trial, stood stock-still in the dock as he was sentenced,
veins bulging in his forehead and his jaw muscles clenched.
At the culmination of one of
the most watched murder trials in recent history, the 27-year-old disabled
sprinter was escorted out by police officers to holding cells beneath the
courtroom in Pretoria.
Pistorius wiped his eyes as Judge
Thokozile Masipa handed down the prison sentence for culpable homicide. There
was no immediate reaction from members of his family, or from the relatives of
Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model. The Steenkamp family lawyer,
however, has reportedly said the five year jail term was the right sentence for
Pistorius.
Masipa said she wanted to find a
balance between retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation, dismissing defence
claims that the disabled athlete would face particular suffering in prison.
"It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were to be
created that there was one law for the poor and disadvantaged and another for
the rich and famous," said Masipa.
She also weighed his ability to cope
with incarceration given his physical disability. "Yes the accused is
vulnerable, but he also has excellent coping skills," she said.
Discussing the gravity of
Pistorius's crime, the judge said he had been responsible of "gross
negligence". "Using a lethal weapon, a loaded firearm, the accused
fired not one, but four shots into the door," said Masipa. "The
toilet was a small cubicle and there was no room for escape for the person
behind the door."
Reeva Steenkamp died almost
instantly when Pistorius fired four shots through a bathroom door at his luxury
Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year, having mistaken her for an
intruder.
The athlete, known as 'Blade Runner'
because of his carbon-fibre prosthetics, became one of the biggest names in
world athletics at the London 2012 Olympics when he reached the semifinals of
the 400m against able-bodied athletes.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pistorius
arrived at the Pretoria High Court for his sentence, which would close one of
the most sensational trials in South African history and one that may yet fuel
controversy about race and money in its justice system.
The Olympic and Paralympic sprinter,
who was convicted of culpable homicide last month for shooting 29-year-old
model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013, was escorted by armed police
into court, past a scrum of reporters.
Dressed in a dark suit with a white
shirt and black tie, the stony-faced 27-year-old stared straight ahead as he
made his way through the melee. He made no comment to reporters before hugging
his lawyer, Barry Roux, inside the courtroom.
Pistorius' uncle, Arnold, who has
been the family patriarch throughout a 7-month trial that has made legal
history as the first to be broadcast live throughout, struck a calm, assured
tone. "I never get nervous," he told reporters.
In her September 12 verdict, Judge
Thokozile Masipa - only the second black woman to rise to South Africa's bench
- cleared Pistorius of murder, saying the state had failed to prove his intent
to kill when he fired four rounds through the door of a toilet cubicle.
Pistorius said he fired in the
mistaken belief an intruder was lurking behind the door at his luxury Pretoria
home, a defence that struck a chord with many in crime-ridden South Africa.
However, Masipa ruled the killing
was legally negligent and convicted him for culpable homicide, South Africa's
equivalent of manslaughter which can still carry up to 15 years behind bars.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel said at
the sentencing hearing last week that 10 years imprisonment was necessary to
satisfy a public that could lose their faith in the justice system if Pistorius
received a non-custodial sentence.
Outside the courthouse in the heart
of the capital, members of the public mingled with reporters, some in support
of Pistorius, others against him.
One man, Golden Miles Bhudu, stood
on the pavement in orange prison clothes and wrapped in chains, holding signs
questioning the notion of equality before the law and ridiculing Pistorius for
his crying and retching during the trial. "Why are certain offenders more
equal than others before the law?" Bhudu's sign said. "He screams
like a girl, he cries like a baby but he shoots like a soldier."
Defence lawyer Barry Roux argued the
double-amputee sprinter should be given community service because his sorrow
and regret at killing the woman he loved was the worst punishment of all.
He also said Pistorius, whose lower
legs were amputated as a baby, would face particular difficulties in prison.
The sprinter, known as 'Blade Runner' because of
the carbon-fibre prosthetics he made famous at the London 2012 Olympics, could
also be given a suspended sentence or house arrest.
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