Justice Lorimer Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling by the five-judge appeals court in Bloemfontein and said the trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, should impose sentence.
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Pistorius was handed a five-year jail term last October for the “culpable homicide” of Steenkamp, whom he killed by firing shots through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day 2013.
Pistorius denies deliberately killing Steenkamp, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home. The judge said the original court judgment was “fundamentally flawed”, and that it was “common sense” that Pistorius would know his shots would be potentially fatal.
The appeals court, in looking at the form of intent in a person’s actions, or “dolus eventualis”, said in its decision on Thursday that Pistorius should have anticipated that by shooting through that door, he would be causing a death, according to reports. He is now serving his sentence on house arrest at his uncle’s home in Pretoria. He faces at least 15 years in prison, but judges can apply some discretion, the BBC reported.
The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, but exceptional circumstances in the case of the former track star, including time already served, his disability and status as a first-time offender, could mean he’ll get a lower sentence.
The case – “a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”, Justice Leach said – will be referred to a trial court for sentencing.
Leach said the evidence of the police’s ballistics expert, Chris Mangena, was of “particular importance”, but was “seemingly ignored” by the trial court.
The courtroom included the mother of murdered girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. During his trial, an emotional Pistorius said he thought his girlfriend was a burglar and he fired out of fear.
Pistorius can challenge the opinion in the constitutional court but only when his attorneys can claim that his constitutional rights are broken.
A date for the sentencing hearing had not been set as WENN went to press.
“Let us now all get on with our lives”, Barry Steenkamp said.
Pistorius’s legal team will study the ruling before considering its options, his family said in an e-mailed statement.
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He fought back tears as he added: “I’m sure that Reeva sitting up there… will be able to rest as well now”.
