After announcing Pistorius’ sentence, the judge ordered a recess to give prosecutors and Pistorius’ defence lawyers time to decide whether they want to appeal the sentence. Pistorius maintained he killed Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was an intruder hiding in the bathroom. Pistorius killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and reality TV star, in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013 by shooting her multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home. Steenkamp’s parents, Barry and June, were also present in the courtroom, which was packed with relatives of both Pistorius and Steenkamp, journalists and other observers. In 2014, Pistorius was acquitted of murder by Masipa following a dramatic seven-month trial.

Source: National Post July 06, 2016 09:11 UTC