South Africa: Disgraced Oscar Pistorius serving six-year sentence in single room cell

Disgraced South African Paralympics runner Oscar Pistorius has been serving his six-year sentence for killing his girlfriend in the same single cell in the hospital section of Pretoria's Kgosi Mampuru prison.

The 29-year-old previously spent a year in the same cell and has been given the same facility due to his disability, said Manelisi Wolela, spokesperson for the Department of Correctional Services.

The official further said the double-amputee athlete would be in a vulnerable position if he was placed in communal normal cells, News24 reported.

Pistorius began his sentence on Wednesday after the High Court in Pretoria sentenced him to six years in jail for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.

Earlier in December, Pistorius, famously known as the Blade Runner, was found guilty of murder after the Supreme Court overturned his previous culpable homicide conviction following the state's successful attempt in challenging the verdict.

Pistorius has always denied deliberately killing his girlfriend and claimed that he mistook her for an intruder before shooting her dead with four bullets fired through a closed toilet door. He will be eligible for parole once he completes half to two-thirds of his sentence.