Oscar Pistorius wants to 'work with children' and could leave jail as early as August
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Version 0 of 1. Oscar Pistorius could be released from jail in just three months’ time despite starting his five year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last October, and is reportedly hoping to work with children “in whatever opportunity comes up” once he is freed. The 28-year-old South African Paralympic athlete was cleared of murder but convicted of culpable homicide for shooting and killing Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day 2013. Pistorius has maintained he believed Steenkamp to be an intruder at the time of his attack. But now the athlete’s lawyers have revealed Pistorius could be freed as early as August. Under South African law he is eligible for parole after serving 10 months in prison, and is keen to mentor or coach young people once he is out, one of his lawyers, Rohan Kruger, told The Sunday Times.
Should he be released, the gold-medallist known as the ‘Blade runner’ will have a 10 month parole term. But Pistorius could still face a murder conviction after Judge Thokozile Masipa granted permission for the state to appeal his verdict. Kruger said Pistorius, who spends 23 hours of the day in an isolation wing, is lonely and spends most of his time reading the Bible and praying in his cell. The legal team is expecting his parole to be set on strict conditions, such as “don’t drink or do drugs; go to church,” adding that “he’ll have a psychological programme, an anger management course”. “They will set the parameters and he will keep to them,” Kruger said, who, along with the rest of Pistorius’s legal team, including lead counsel Barry Roux, reportedly has not yet been paid for the last two months’ worth of work for the athlete. Kruger said Pistorius is “utterly penniless” and sold everything from his watches to his car and his guns to fund his legal case, but has apparently refused countless book and film deals that have been offered to him. |