Former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison in January, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend.

Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013 at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.

He said he fired his gun through a bathroom door after mistaking her for an intruder.

The 37-year-old has been granted parole from 5 January, said South Africa’s department of correctional services.

The parole will last until 5 December 2029 and he will be subject to conditions until his sentence ends.

Pistorius’ trial was televised and held in a blaze of publicity, with the prosecution arguing it was premeditated and that he shot his model girlfriend after an argument.

The athlete was initially not found guilty of murder and instead convicted of culpable homicide (the equivalent of manslaughter in the UK).

He was sentenced to five years in 2014 and eventually released to house arrest.

A year later, the conviction was overturned when the supreme court of appeal found him guilty of murder.

He was sentenced to six years – which was then increased to 13 years and five months after it was deemed “shockingly too lenient”.

The parole board considered his case again on Friday after denying him parole in March.

Serious offenders are eligible for parole in South Africa after serving at least half their sentence.

Ms Steenkamp’s mother, June, had a statement read out by a family friend outside the prison.

She said she wasn’t opposing the parole and didn’t attend the hearing as “I simply cannot muster the energy to face him again at this stage.”

Her husband, Barry Steenkamp, who attended the original trial alongside her, died in September aged 80.

Pistorius had previously met him inside jail in 2022 as part of a restorative justice programme that brings offenders and victims together.

The decision for a second parole hearing came after his lawyer took his case to the constitutional court over errors in calculating when Pistorius would be eligible for parole.

He was initially told he would only be eligible in August 2024, when he was in fact eligible in March.

Granting a second hearing was seen as effectively an admission of the court’s error.

Pistorius was born in South Africa in 1986. At 11 months old, both his legs were amputated below the knee because of a congenital defect.

He went on to compete at the Paralympics and became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.

Known as the Blade Runner because of his prosthetic blades, Pistorius became a global sport star.

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