Pistorius given six-year prison term for murder of girlfriend

Former South African Paralympics runner Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years in jail for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, the High Court in Pretoria ruled on Wednesday.

Pistorius, famously known as the Blade Runner, was released on parole in October 2015 and has been placed under house arrest since then at his uncle's house after serving almost a year in prison of his five-year sentence

But the double-amputee athlete was found guilty of murder after the Supreme Court overturned his previous culpable homicide conviction in December following the state's successful attempt in challenging the verdict.

While delivering her decision in a story that has attracted intense worldwide attention, Judge Thokozile Masipa said she had considered both aggravating and mitigating factors, such as rehabilitation and murder, and concluded that the latter outweighed the former, Sport24 reported.

Judge Masipa, who heard the original trial, cited this factor as main reason for deviating from the prescribed 15-year sentence for murder.

Pistorius has always denied deliberately killing his girlfriend and claimed that he mistook her for an intruder before shooting her dead with four bullets fired through a closed toilet door.

The 29-year-old was taken immediately to jail. Both the prosecution and defence can appeal.