Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to six years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at their home in 2013.

The disgraced Paralympian could have faced a life sentence after the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned his manslaughter conviction and found him guilty of murder.

His sentence is considerably less than the minimum jail term of 15 years for murder under South African law.

Judge Thozokile Masipa told a packed courtroom in Pretoria that she felt the mitigating circumstances in the case outweighed the aggravating factors.

She said the fact that Pistorius had tried to save Ms Steenkamp's life following the shooting played a factor in her sentencing, as did his repeated and unsuccessful attempts to apologise to her family.

However, the judge said she gave "very little weight" to the testimony given by Dr Jonathan Scholtz, a psychiatrist who testified for the defence on Oscar Pistorius's state of mind, as much of his evidence was "unsupported by anything concrete".

(Sky News)