Oscar Pistorius' lawyer eyeing 'immediate release' if parole granted a decade on from Reeva Steenkamp murder

Pistorius is heading to a parole hearing this Friday, having previously been wrongfully denied parole back in March.

The South African star, who was once the face of Paralympic sport, was previously sentenced to 13 years and five months for killing Miss Steenkamp.

And Pistorius' lawyer, Conrad Dormehl, has told AFP that 'the best-case scenario' was 'an immediate release'.

"An immediate placement on parole would be the best-case scenario, which would obviously be before Christmas," Dormehl said.

He added: "We are hoping that the parole board can come to a swift resolution of the matter."

Sometimes it can take weeks before a prisoner who is granted parole to be discharged.

Yet there's a possibility Pistorius will be immediately freed as Christmas looms.

The runner fired four times on Miss Steenkamp 10 years ago.

He denied murder and pleaded not guilty, saying he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder.

The murder, which stunned the world, took place less than a year after Pistorius had taken part in the 2012 London Olympics.

Miss Steenkamp's family have been in mourning ever since her tragic death.

Her mother, June, won't be attending Pistorius' parole hearing after the death of her husband and Reeva's father, Barry, back in September.

Back in February, Mr Steenkamp said Pistorius 'stuck to his story' that he didn't commit murder.

"I told Oscar directly that he had shot my daughter deliberately and he denied it. He stuck to his story that he thought it was an intruder," he said.

"After all these years we are still waiting for him to admit he did it in anger. That is all we wanted.

"If he told me the truth, he would have been a free man by now and I would have let the law take its course over his parole.

"But I was wasting my time. He is a murderer. He should remain in jail."

Mrs Steenkamp said she didn't meet Pistorius in prison because she was worried she'd hurt him in anger.

"I couldn't see myself going without hurting him," she said. "I didn't want to go to jail for attacking him. That would have been a great possibility.

"Things haven't got better. It gets worse as the time goes by because we miss Reeva every day that she is not here with us.

"It's very, very stressful that she couldn't spend our last days with us because he took her.

"Oscar has taken a lot away from us and from her.

"So now instead of getting upset, I get anger. I am angry with him. It is a horrible thing to say, but I can't stand him.

"I don't think that he got enough time and if somebody takes a life they must pay with their life in jail.

"He has taken her life away from us. Everything that we would have had with the joyfulness of having her.

"Reeva was a wonderful daughter, and she never made a wrong move in her life. She never stressed us out with anything. She was just a perfect person and a loving person for both of us.

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"That has gone, but we think of her all the time.

"Those are the hardest of things. She wanted to have children and she wanted to get married. But she got involved with the wrong person.

"I have become another person too. People ask me what defines me, and it is Reeva's death.

"I am not the same person. I feel that and when I look in the mirror, I am not seeing me.

"I have lost the big something in my life. It is too much. She was everything to us. She was our whole life and now we haven't got her anymore.

"He never showed any remorse to Barry whatsoever. He is a murderer."