However, Judge Thokozile Masipa appeared to anticipate criticism of a jail term that fell far short of the normally mandated 15 years for murder under South African law, declaring: “Our courts are courts of law, not courts of public opinion”. Pistorius has already served 12 months behind bars for his girlfriend’s death.
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“Although a custodial sentence is the proper sentence, I am of the view that a long term imprisonment will not serve justice in this matter”, Judge Masipa said.
After announcing Pistorius’ sentence, the judge ordered a recess to give prosecutors and Pistorius’ defense lawyers time to decide they want to appeal the sentence. Pistorius’ defence team has indicated it will not appeal the sentence.
Steenkamp’s mother and father, who said Pistorius had to pay for his crime, were also in the court.
Pistorius, 29, hugged his family before being taken out of the court in Pretoria to begin serving his sentence. Masipa said she saw no evidence that Steenkamp’s murder was a case of domestic violence, despite public perception that it was. Pistorius, who had served one year in prison after his culpable homicide conviction, had originally been sentenced to five years before the upgraded murder conviction. “We have moved from the culpable homicide which was five years, and then you come to murder and add one and it becomes six years, it’s really devestating”, Mofokeng said. “He is a fallen hero and can never be at peace”.
The Paralympian’s lawyers have indicated that he will not be looking to appeal against this six-year sentence.
Masipa said she had considered both mitigating and aggravating circumstances, concluding that the former outweighed the latter.
He argued that he fired four shots into the door of a toilet cubicle at his luxury Pretoria home in the mistaken belief that an intruder was hiding behind it.
But in December 2015, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals overturned that conviction and found him guilty of murder, finding that he must have know that he would likely kill whomever was behind the bathroom door, even if he didn’t know it was Steenkamp.
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The six-time Paralympic gold medallist made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympics, in 2012 in London, running on prosthetic “blades”.
