'Blade Runner' Pistorius to be freed 10 years after murdering his girlfriend

DOUBLE-AMPUTEE Paralympian Oscar Pistorius will walk free from jail in the New Year, a decade after shooting his girlfriend dead in a rage.

- Tara Fair

The 37-year-old sprinter, dubbed Blade Runner in his glory days of sprinting, was granted parole from January 5 by South African authorities yesterday.

Pistorius was sentenced to 13 years and five months in 2016 for the Valentine's Day 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in Pretoria.

Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half of their sentence to be eligible for parole.

The parole board in Pretoria made its ruling after a victim statement from Reeva's mother, June Steenkamp, warning that she feared he might still pose a danger to women.

She said she did not know a single person who believed he had not deliberately shot her daughter.

Describing how dearest child "my screamed for her life" before fired bullets through a Pistorius at her locked said bathroom door at his home, June Reeva's father Barry recently died from a "broken heart".

She pointed out that the runner could not be judged to have demonstrated remorse for his actions, a condition of parole, without admitting the truth.