South African Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, ending a trial that has gripped South Africa and the world.
As judge Thokozile Masipa read out her decision on Pistorius' Sept. 12 culpable homicide conviction, the 27-year-old, whose downfall has been likened to that of American football star O.J. Simpson, stood resolutely in the dock.
His only reaction was to wipe his eyes before two police officers led him down to the holding cells beneath the High Court in the heart of the South African capital. An armoured police vehicle took him from the court building.
Masipa -- only the second black woman to rise to the bench -- stressed the difficulty of arriving at a decision that was "fair and just to society and to the accused".
The 67-year-old also rebuffed suggestions that Pistorius -- a wealthy and influential white man -- might be able to secure preferential justice despite the "equality before law" guarantee enshrined in South Africa's post-apartheid constitution.
"It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were created that there is one law for the poor and disadvantaged, and one law for the rich and famous," she said.
Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, died almost instantly on Valentine's Day last year when Pistorius shot her three times through a locked toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home.
The athlete maintained that he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was hiding behind the door, a defence that struck a chord in a country with one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
The ruling African National Congress' Women's League, which is at the forefront of political efforts to tackle violence against South African women, immediately called for an appeal by the state against the culpable homicide conviction.
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