OJ Simpson freed from jail after spending nine years behind bars

OJ Simpson has been released on parole after spending nine years in jail.

The former American football star and Hollywood actor had been in prison after being convicted of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon among a number of charges, following a botched heist as he attempted to receive sporting memorabilia.

Famously, he was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goodman in 1995 in a legal case which made headlines around the world.

Nevada Department of Corrections posted on Facebook on Sunday that Simpson had been freed from the Lovelock Correctional Center early on Sunday morning.

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“The Nevada Department of Corrections, in an effort to ensure public safety and reduce the potential for incident, released Orenthal James Simpson #1027820 on October 1, 2017 at 12:08AM from Lovelock Correctional Center,” read a statement.

Brooke Keast, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Corrections, said: ‘It was incident free, nobody followed, it was exactly what we’d hoped we could do for public safety.

‘It was a public safety concern. To make it quiet, under the radar and incident free.”

The department of corrections also released images and a video.

The decision to release Simpson was made by the parole board earlier this year.

The 70-year-old has said he wants to live in Florida following his release.

He told his parole board in July: ‘I’ve done my time. I’ve done it as well and as respectfully as I think anyone can.”

It is not known who met Simpson on his release and where he immediately went.

His legal team said this week that he was just looking forward to the ‘simple pleasures’ of eating steak and buying an iPhone on his release.

Despite being acquitted of the 1995 murders – in what was dubbed ‘the trial of the century’ – OJ was found liable for the killings in a civil court hearing two years later and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5m (£24m).

Before his arrest he was filmed live on television being pursued by police on a Californian freeway.

The saga spawned an award-winning documentary and television drama.

In a poll before his release, a quarter of Americans said they thought he would retain his celebrity status once out of jail.