Oscar Pistorius likely to receive LESS than the minimum 15-year prison sentence

Oscar Pistorius is likely to receive less than the minimum 15-year prison sentence for murdering Reeva Steenkamp, legal sources have claimed.

The disgraced Paralympian is due to be sentenced on Wednesday for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, three years ago.

He was was freed from prison in the South African capital last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide - the equivalent of manslaughter. An appeals court later upgraded the conviction to murder, which has a minimum standard sentence of 15 years.

But due to his time already spent in jail and mitigating factors such as his disability, he may be given a lesser term. Pistorius, 29, shot Steenkamp to death in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who heard the original trial, will deliver the sentence three weeks after a court hearing that marked another episode of high drama in the long-running case.

Pistorius, sobbing heavily, hobbled on his stumps across the courtroom to demonstrate his physical vulnerability as his lawyers argued he should not return to jail on account of his anxiety disorder and depression. 

'I don't think he will get the 15 years,' Ulrich Roux, who is unaffiliated with the case but has followed it closely, told AFP. 'His personal circumstances and the disability will be taken into account. One possibility is that part of the sentence may be suspended.' 

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that the double-amputee sprinter should be given a lengthy jail term as he failed to show any remorse for the murder. Nel also criticised Pistorius for filming a television interview, despite claiming to be too unwell to give evidence in court.

In the interview - his first since the killing - Pistorius said that he believed Steenkamp would want him to devote his life to charity rather than return to prison. 'If I was afforded the opportunity of redemption, I would like to help the less fortunate,' he said.

'I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me that she would want me to live that life.

Source: Dailymail