Oscar Pistorius – live: ‘Blade Runner’ out of prison and at home 11 years after killing girlfriend

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”.

Oscar Pistorius is admitted to the system of community corrections and is now at home, says South Africa’s Correctional Services Department.

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.

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was due to be released from prison on parole Friday, more than a decade after he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a Valentine’s Day killing that shattered the reputation of a sports superstar.

Television crews, photographers and news reporters gathered outside the gates of the Atteridgeville Correctional Center in the South African capital of Pretoria before 6am, waiting to catch a glimpse of the world-famous double-amputee Olympic runner.

Department of Corrections officials have said that Pistorius’ release time today will not be announced ahead of time and he will not be “paraded,” indicating they will attempt to keep him away from the media glare that has trailed him since he shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet door at his home in the predawn hours of 14 February 2013.

Officials are expected to transport Pistorius, 37, from the prison to a corrections department office to be processed before he is officially released on parole. He is expected to initially live at his uncle’s mansion in the upscale Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof, where he lived during his murder trial and where he was held on house arrest for a period in 2015-2016.

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.

He is expected to live in Pretoria, in a garden cottage on the guarded property of his wealthy uncle, and speculation has started that – now at the age of 37 – he could try to make a return to elite Paralympic sport. But would that even be possible?

Here’s everything you need to know about a potential return:

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.

Having had previous death threats and break-ins, Pistorius said he slept with a 9-mm pistol under his bed in his plush Pretoria home in the heart of a well-secured gated community. At his trial, the court heard that the ammunition in the weapon was designed to inflict maximum damage to the human body.

The former Paralympic star will walk free on Friday 5 January.

Pistorius claimed he thought Ms Steenkamp was an intruder when he shot her, but was convicted of culpable homicide, a crime similar to manslaughter, in 2014.

Oscar Pistorius, who was born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knees before his first birthday, was once seen as the embodiment of human triumph over adversity.

The Johannesburg-born athlete gained global fame in the early 2000s, when he won Paralympic gold in the 200 metres at the Games in Athens.

Pistorius then set his sights on running against able-bodied athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but was barred from competing in the event by World Athletics – then called the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The ban was eventually overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but Pistorius failed to qualify for the Olympics, coming within 0.70 seconds of the qualifying standard for the 400 metres in Beijing.

Undeterred, he swept that year’s Paralympics, taking home the 100, 200 and 400m gold medals, before launching a bid to qualify for 2012 Olympics in London.

This time he was successful, and reached the 400m semi-finals and competed for South Africa in the 4x400m relay.

He also won another three Paralympic medals that year but then, on 14 February 2013, he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

A gun enthusiast, he told the trial he had believed Steenkamp was an intruder when he shot her several times with ammunition designed to inflict maximum damage to the human body. It was an account he repeated over the years.

He was initially jailed for five years in 2014 for culpable homicide. That sentence was changed to six years after the Supreme Court of Appeal in late 2015 found him guilty of the more serious charge of murder, later increasing it to 13 years after prosecutors argued the punishment was too lenient.