No date set yet for sentencing of Oscar Pistorius for murder

“Guilty of murder, with the accused having criminal intent”, judge Eric Leach told the court in South Africa’s judicial capital Bloemfontein in a dramatic legal reversal.

Late yesterday media reports suggested there was a warrant of arrest out for Pistorius, but that it would only be enforced next week.

An appeals court decided Thursday that Oscar Pistorius got away with murder when he stood trial for killing his girlfriend, a ruling that will nearly certainly send the disgraced Olympian back to prison.

Pistorius – a six-time Paralympic gold medallist – is now under house arrest. “I feel it’s a fair decision that the judge gave”, before breaking down in tears.

Barry Steenkamp, Reeva’s father, said after the verdict: “It’s a big relief”. They said he meant to kill Steenkamp and that she had fled to the toilet during a row.

Justice Leach overturned that conviction to replace it with murder following a 53 minute court hearing.

In South African law, under the principle of dolus eventualis, a person can be convicted of murder if they foresaw the possibility of their actions resulting in the death of someone but continued regardless. “My feeling is that he’s done a year, so looking at all the factors, maybe nine, 10 years in prison”.

Oscar Pistorius, left, passes family members of the late Reeva Steenkamp on his arrival in court in Pretoria, South Africa. Pistorius may now make his own appeal to South Africa’s Constitutional Court – the country’s highest court. The South African court of appeal Thursday Dec. 3 2015 has convicted Pistorius of murder, overturning his manslaughter conviction. Steenkamp had been inside the couple’s home washroom when Pistorius says he mixed up her for a gatecrasher amidst the night and shot her four times from outside the bolted latrine entryway.

“He faces a minimum of 15 years”.

Known as the “blade runner”, he made history by becoming the first amputee sprinter to compete in the 2012 Olympics, after his legs were amputated to the knee as a baby.

“This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”, Leach said while delivering the ruling on behalf of the five-judge appeals court.