For many Valentine's Day is one where they can celebrate their love for their partner - but, for Oscar Pistorius, it marks the anniversary of the date he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The Paralympian - known as "Blade Runner" or "The Fastest Man On No Legs" - became the first amputee to win an able-bodied world track medal in 2011, but his demise came less than two years later at his own home in Pretoria, South Africa. Claiming to have mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder in the bathroom, Pistorius shot multiple times through the closed door, killing his model girlfriend on February 14, 2013. After admitting to killing her, but adamant he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder, Pistorius' murder trail began in March 2014. Pistorius received a psychiatric examination and it was determined that he had a generalised anxiety disorder, but that he could still be held criminally responsible. On September 12, 2014, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide, a firearm-related charge and of reckless endangerment related to discharging a firearm in a restaurant -and he received a maximum five-year sentence (with a concurrent three-year suspended term alongside). Currently the South African state are attempting to appeal the verdict in order to have Pistorius found guilty of premeditated murder instead - but the athlete is serving his sentence as this process is on-going.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
