Who is Oscar Pistorius? Why did he lose his legs, why is he in prison - what is his release date

Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on 5 January next year after serving more than half of his sentence for murder. The double amputee, who started serving his sentence in 2014, lost his first bid for parole in March, however he appeared before a parole board on Friday (24 November) in Pretoria, South Africa and has been granted it.

The mother of Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend of Pistorius whom he shot dead, said that she would not oppose the parole application or attend the hearing, her lawyer said. However, the South African athlete will listen to a statement written by June Steenkamp describing how the murder affected the family.

Asked about the likelihood of Pistorius, 37, being home for Christmas, his lawyer had said the ideal timing would be “an immediate release” after the case is considered. It can typically take a month to process an inmate’s release on parole, but Pistorius’s lawyers will push for an earlier date after his first application in March, was ruled by the Constitutional Court to have failed due to an error in calculating his days in detention.

His parole terms are likely to include Pistorius being fitted with a security tag or limitations on his travel or making money from media interviews about his crime or incarceration. His lawyer, Conrad Dormehl said: “We are hoping that the parole board can come to a swift resolution of the matter.”

Who is Oscar Pistorius?

Oscar Pistorius is a former Olympic and Paralympic athlete and a convicted murderer. He was born in South Africa in 1986 and at 11 months old both of his legs were amputated below the knee because of a congenital defect.

He ran on prosthetic blades and gained the nickname Blade Runner. Until 2013, he was mostly known for his athleticism, after winning gold at the Paralympics and making history as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. He became a role model for disabled athletes, and a magnet for lucrative sponsorship deals, when he reached the semi-finals of the 400m event.

Why is he in prison?

On the morning of 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.  Ms Steenkamp, 29, was shot dead by Pistorius while she was in the toilet. He has always insisted the shooting was a mistake, saying he thought an intruder was in the house and he feared for his safety.

He fired four shots through a locked toilet door, hitting Ms Steenkamp in the head, hip and arm. Pistorius claimed in court it was only when he battered down the door with a cricket bat that he realised who was behind it.

The prosecution argued the murder was premeditated and Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp after an argument. Part of their argument was that Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs at the time of the shooting which they said the time taken to put them on was evidence of premeditation. However, Pistorius testified he was on his stumps, a claim that was backed up by a ballistic expert's analysis.

After he was initially sentenced to six years in prison and convicted of manslaughter in 2014, an appeal by state prosecutors led to Pistorius’s punishment and conviction being upgraded to murder and 13 years in jail.

He spent a short time at Kgosi Mampuru prison, a maximum-security facility that houses some of South Africa’s most dangerous criminals. He was then moved to Atteridgeville prison, which is for inmates serving no more than six years, after his lawyers successfully argued that his disability made him an exceptional case.

Pistorius had a meeting with Steenkamp’s father in June last year as part of a “victim-offender dialogue”, an element of the parole process. Barry Steenkamp, who died in September this year, said that Pistorius had dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness.