Disgraced Paralympian Oscar Pistorius could regain his freedom as prosecutors admit they blundered when they refused killer’s earlier bids for parole from prison for shooting dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Oscar Pistorius could regain his freedom after prosecutors admitted they made a blunder when they refused previous requests for parole.

The double amputee, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, will get another chance at an emergency parole hearing on Friday.

His family and lawyers are confident South African prosecutors will release him after he was jailed for the 2013 shooting of model Reeva Steenkamp.

But if the armed athlete known as ‘Blade Runner’ wins freedom he will be kept under strict protection for fear of revenge attacks from Johannesburg’s underworld, as first revealed by Mail Online.

It is said that Pistorius was wrongly ineligible for early release from prison in March.

His family and lawyers are confident South African prosecutors will release him after he was jailed for the 2013 shooting of model Reeva Steenkamp (pictured)

South Africa’s Department of Corrections said today that a release board will decide on Friday whether or not the prisoner is suitable for social integration.

Reeva’s family said in an exclusive interview with Mail Online at their Port Elizabeth home earlier this year that their killer’s daughter should remain behind bars.

Mr Barry Steenkamp, ​​Reeva’s father, died in September, but both he and his wife June said they were against the killer’s release.

Pistorius, a world-famous double amputee athlete who broke barriers by competing on carbon fiber running blades at the 2012 London Olympics, shot Reeva multiple times through a closed washroom door at his home in the South African capital Pretoria in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.

His conviction was upgraded to murder and he was eventually sentenced to thirteen years and five months in prison, after a series of appeals by prosecutors.

Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half their sentence before they are eligible for parole.

Pistorius’ case and his parole have been complicated by prosecutors’ appeals, who first challenged his murder conviction and then a six-year sentence for murder, which they called shockingly lenient.

The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in 2017 that Pistorius must serve the South African minimum sentence of 15 years for murder, but took into account the year and seven months he had already served for manslaughter when handing down the 13 years and five months sentence .

However, the court erred by not counting another period Pistorius had served while his murder conviction was being appealed, meaning he was effectively eligible for parole in March when he was told at his first hearing that he would not be eligible until August 2024. .

Pistorius’ lawyers took his case to the country’s highest Constitutional Court. The decision to give Pistorius another parole hearing on Friday is effectively an admission of the appeal court’s error, it was reported.

But if the armed athlete known as ‘Blade Runner’ wins freedom he will be kept under strict protection for fear of revenge attacks from Johannesburg’s underworld, as first revealed by Mail Online. It is said that Pistorius was wrongly ineligible for early release from prison in March (file image)

Mr Barry Steenkamp (right), Reeva’s father, died in September, but both he and his wife June (left) said they were against the killer’s release

Pistorius, a world-famous double amputee athlete who broke barriers by competing on carbon fiber running blades at the 2012 London Olympics, shot Reeva multiple times through a closed washroom door at his home in the South African capital Pretoria in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 (file image)

There is no guarantee that Pistorius will be released early. A parole board will take into account a number of factors, including his behavior and disciplinary record in prison, his mental health and the likelihood of him committing another crime.

He could be released on full parole or on day parole, where he would be allowed to live and work in the community but return to prison at night.

Pistorius was born with a congenital condition that led to his legs being amputated below the knee when he was a baby, but he took to the track and won multiple Paralympic titles on his running skates. He is the only double amputee to have competed in the Olympics.

Known as the ‘Blade Runner’, he was at the height of his fame when he murdered Steenkamp months after the London Olympics. During his murder trial, he claimed that he accidentally shot Steenkamp, ​​a 29-year-old model, with his licensed 9mm pistol because he thought she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night.

Pistorius turns 37 on Wednesday and has not been seen for almost a decade, although there have been occasional glimpses of his time in prison.

Mr Steenkamp told MailOnline in February that he met Pistorius after being flown from prison to a detention center near their home in Port Elizabeth.

He said he was not convinced his daughter’s killer should win his freedom.

‘I was wasting my time. He’s a murderer. He should stay in prison,” he told MailOnline.

Ms Steenkamp explained why she refused to meet Pistorius and further damned the gunman.

She said: ‘I couldn’t see myself going without hurting him. I didn’t want to go to jail for assaulting him. That would have been a great opportunity. Things haven’t gotten better. It gets worse as time goes by because we miss Reeva every day she is not with us.

‘It’s very stressful that she couldn’t spend our last days with us because he took her away.

‘Oscar took a lot from us and from her. So instead of getting angry, I now get angry. I’m mad at him. It’s horrible to say, but I can’t stand him.’