Pistorius Jailed Six Years For Girlfriend’sMurder

South African Paralympic gold medallist, Oscar Pistorius,
was sent to prison for six years on Wednesday for the 2013
murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, the latest twist
in a trial that has gripped the world.

The state and large sections of the South African public
had called for him to receive no less than the prescribed
minimum 15-year sentence for murder, saying Pistorius
had shown no remorse for the killing.
Judge Thokozile Masipa disagreed, accepting the
defence’s arguments for a lesser punishment.
Pistorius was found guilty of murdering Steenkamp by an
appeals court last December. He had initially received a
five-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction in 2014
handed down by Masipa, a ruling derided by women’s
groups as too lenient.
In her ruling on Wednesday, Masipa said that although the
Steenkamp family had suffered great loss, Pistorius’ life
and career had also been in ruins.