Paralympian gold medalist Oscar Pistorius will walk free from a South African prison on Friday 11 years after he killed his model girlfriend.
The double amputee was convicted of murdering Reeva Steenkamp after he shot her multiple times through a locked toilet door with a 9mm pistol on Valentine’s Day at their Pretoria home in 2013.
Now reportedly a grey haired smoker who has turned to religion, the 37-year-old will begin his new life on parole a few miles away from the South African capital behind the high walls of his wealthy uncle’s guarded property.
A gun enthusiast, Pistorius claimed he thought Ms Steenkamp was an intruder but was convicted of culpable homicide – a crime similar to manslaughter – in 2014.
He was found guilty of the more serious charge of murder in 2015 and he was later sentenced to 13 years in prison after prosecutors won an appeal on the grounds his initial sentence was too lenient.
Pistorius was injured while in prison
04:00 , Alexander Butler
During his time in prison, Pistorius had a few run ins with other inmates and suffered injuries. In 2017, he was injured in a prison fight over the use of a public phone, according to a South African prison official.
The double amputee, who is set to be released on Friday, was left with bruising after the altercation, the Department of Correctional Services said.
“Oscar Pistorius sustained a bruise following an alleged incident with another inmate over the use of a public phone in the special care unit where both offenders are detained at Attridgeville correctional centre,” Singabakho Nxumalo, a prison spokesman, said at the time.
Read more here:
Oscar Pistorius injured in prison fight
Muted reaction to Pistorius’s parole
03:48 , Namita Singh
Reaction to Oscar Pistorius’ parole has been muted in South Africa, a stark contrast to the first days and months after Reeva Steenkamp’s killing, which enraged many and sparked angry protests outside of Pistorius’s court hearings calling for him to receive a long prison sentence. There is no death penalty in South Africa.
“He has ticked all the necessary boxes,” said Themba Masango, secretary general of Not In My Name International, a group that campaigns against violence against women. “And we can only wish and hope Oscar Pistorius will come out a better human being.”
“We tend to forget that there is a possibility where somebody can be rehabilitated.”
What are parole conditions imposed on Pistorius
03:39 , Namita Singh
Some of Oscar Pistorius’ parole conditions include restrictions on when he’s allowed to leave his home, a ban on consuming alcohol, and orders that he must attend programs on anger management and on violence against women.
He will have to perform community service.
Pistorius will also have to regularly meet with parole officials at his home and at correctional services offices and will be subjected to unannounced visits by authorities. He is not allowed to leave the Waterkloof district without permission and is banned from speaking to the media until the end of his sentence. He could be sent back to jail if he is in breach of any of his parole conditions.
South Africa does not use tags or bracelets on paroled offenders so Pistorius will not wear any monitoring device, Department of Corrections officials said. But he will be constantly monitored by a department official appointed to his case and will have to inform the official of any major changes in his life, such as if he wants to get a job or move house.
Steenkamp’s family did not oppose Pistorius parole application
03:26 , Namita Singh
Reeva Steenkamp’s family did not oppose Oscar Pistorius’s parole application in November, although her mother, June Steenkamp, said in a victim statement submitted to the board that made the decision that she didn’t believe Pistorius had been fully rehabilitated and was still lying about the killing.
The Corrections Department has emphasised that his release — like every other offender on parole — does not mean that he has served his time.
In 2022, Pistorius met Steenkamp’s father Barry during a process known as victim-offender dialogue – part of South Africa’s restorative justice programme that brings parties affected by a crime together in a bid to achieve closure.
Few details were made public about the meeting and Steenkamp’s father died in 2023.
Her mother June said in a statement before the parole hearing for Pistorius, now 37 years old, that she was not convinced he had been rehabilitated.
But she added that she had forgiven him “long ago as I knew most certainly that I would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger”.
What does South Africa’s law say about parole?
03:23 , Namita Singh
South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius is set to be released on parole on Friday, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that shocked a nation long inured to violence against women.
Pistorius – dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs – shot the 29-year-old model dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Pistorius, now 37, has spent about eight and a half years in jail as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.
Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half of their sentence, which Pistorius has done.
Where will Oscar Pistorius live after being released on parole
03:03 , Namita Singh
Oscar Pistorius, 37, is expected to initially reside at his uncle’s luxurious mansion in the upscale Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof, where he lived during his dramatic murder trial and was held under house arrest for a period from 2015-2016.
On Thursday, bright yellow traffic barriers had been placed across a road leading to his uncle’s house, possibly in preparation for Pistorius’ arrival.
The multiple Paralympic champion will live under correctional supervision until the remainder of his murder sentence of 13 years and five months expires in December 2029, the Department of Corrections said.
Oscar Pistorius to be strictly monitored until December 2029
02:53 , Namita Singh
Oscar Pistorius is due to be released from prison today to live under strict conditions at a family home having served nearly nine years of a murder sentence for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The double-amputee Olympic runner from South Africa is set to leave the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria after being approved for parole in November, the second time he had applied.
It will give the world a chance at its first glimpse in nearly a decade of the one-time sporting superstar who stunningly fell from grace after shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet door at his home in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.
South Africa’s Department of Corrections declined to give any detail of when and how Pistorius would be released, saying “inmates and parolees are never paraded.” Pistorius’ public profile “does not make him different from other inmates nor warrant inconsistent treatment,” the Department of Corrections said in a statement Wednesday.
Pistorius’s release ‘sends wrong message’, charity warns
02:30 , Alexander Butler
Oscar Pistorius’s release from prison on parole sends the “wrong message” to potential offenders, a women’s charity warned.
Bulelwa Adonis, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Women for Change, said gender-based violence had only got worse in South Africa since Pistorius murdered his girlfriend in 2013.
“If anything, we’ve only seen statistics rise since 2013. Things have only got worse,” she said. “What we perceive is that our government, our SA leaders, haven’t taken gender-based violence seriously,” Ms Adonis told the Guardian.
What happened on the day Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp?
01:30 , Alexander Butler
On Valentine’s Day in 2013, Oscar Pistorius pulled the trigger four times on his 9mm pistol as Reeva Steenkamp stood inside a locked toilet cubicle in his home.
The vital question has still never been answered: Did the Olympic runner know he was shooting at and killing his girlfriend?
Only Pistorius really knows for sure what he did, and he may be the only person who ever will.
Pistorius told his televised 2014 murder trial that he had mistaken noises behind the bathroom door for an intruder and had not fired at his girlfriend in rage, as the prosecution alleged.
What happened on the day Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp?
What happens to Oscar Pistorius after he is released from jail?
00:30 , Alexander Butler
Pistorius – known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs when he was an athlete – became eligible for parole in March 2023 after he had served half of his 13 years and five months sentence for murder.
He was granted parole on 24 November 2023 to take effect on 5 January 2024.
South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said in November that Pistorius would complete the remainder of his sentence in the country’s community corrections system.
Read more here:
What happens to Oscar Pistorius after he is released from jail?
Could Oscar Pistorius make Paralympic return after prison release?
Thursday 4 January 2024 23:30 , Alexander Butler
Former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Friday after he was granted parole nearly 11 years after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
On February 14, 2013, he shot and killed Steenkamp before being sent to jail after a high-profile trial in South Africa.
Pistorius became eligible for parole in March 2023, after he had served half of his 13 years and five months sentence for murder and was duly granted parole on 24 November, which will take effect on 5 January.
Could Oscar Pistorius make Paralympic return after prison release?
Reeva Steenkamp: The model and law graduate who had a bright future ahead
Thursday 4 January 2024 22:30 , Alexander Butler
Reeva Steenkamp, 29, had been in a relationship with Pistorius for just three months when he shot her four times through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Reeva was born in Cape Town and raised in Port Elizabeth as one of three siblings. “There’s a space missing inside all of the people that she knew that can’t be filled again,” her brother Adam said in his eulogy at her funeral.
“We’re going to keep all the positive things that we remember and know about my sister and we will try and continue with the things that she tried to make better. We’ll miss her.”
Read more here:
On the day Oscar Pistorius returns to prison, we must remember the woman whose life he stole
Reeva Steenkamp’s father details ‘traumatising’ meeting with daughter’s murderer
Thursday 4 January 2024 21:30 , Alexander Butler
Reeva Steenkamp’s father, who has since died, described a “traumatising” face-to-face meeting with his daughter’s murderer Oscar Pistorius last year.
Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the killing, Barry Steenkamp opened up about the prison cell confrontation he had with the former Paralympian.
“He wasn’t wailing and crying like a baby, tears came into his eyes, yes. But it wasn’t that dramatic that he was wailing and crying like a baby. It was really traumatising for myself.”
Reeva Steenkamp’s father details ‘traumatising’ prison meeting with Oscar Pistorius
Reeva Steenkamp would ‘light up any room’, mother says
Thursday 4 January 2024 20:30 , Alexander Butler
Reeva Steenkamp’s mother June described her daughter as “beautiful” who would light up a room with her presence in a victim impact statement given before Pistorius’s parole hearing last year.
Steenkamp’s family spokesperson, Rob Matthews, read a victim impact statement from June Steenkamp ahead of his hearing.
“Reeva was born a miracle, she entered our lives after medical experts predicted that I would have difficulty conceiving after a miscarriage. From a very young age, she had the ability to light up a room with her presence,” the statement read.
Mrs Steenkamp also said she did not believe Pistorius had thought her daughter was an intruder, which he claimed during his trial.
Despite saying her daughter’s death left a “massive hole” in the life of her family, she said she had forgiven Pistorius as she “would not be able to survive if I had to cling to my anger”.
Reeva Steenkamp’s mother speaks of ‘beautiful’ daughter ahead of Pistorius hearing
Pictured: Oscar Pistorius’s prison cell inside the Kgosi Mampuru II prison, Pretoria, South Africa, in 2016
Thursday 4 January 2024 19:30 , Alexander Butler
Oscar Pistorius: From Olympic superstar to Pretoria prison
Thursday 4 January 2024 18:15 , Alexander Butler
Just a year before Ms Steenkamp’s death, Pistorius had starred at the London Olympic Games in summer 2012 and won worldwide fame.
In addition to his haul of three medals – two gold and one silver – Pistorius had become the first double-amputee to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics.
The historic achievement cemented his place as a trailblazer and celebrated ambassador for disability sport. Read more about his fall from grace here:
Oscar Pistorius: From Olympic superstar to Pretoria prison
Welcome to our live coverage of this event
Thursday 4 January 2024 16:23 , Alexander Butler
Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of this event. Paralympian gold medalist and murderer Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Friday 11 years after killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The double amputee was convicted of murdering Reeva Steenkamp after he shot her multiple times through a locked toilet door with a 9mm pistol on Valentine’s Day at their Pretoria home in 2013.
But he is now set to be released on parole, and will live with his uncle on a high walled and closely guarded compound a few miles from Pretoria.
We will be bringing you all live updates, including pictures of Pistorius leaving prison, reaction to his early release, and explainers on what happened.
