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Oscar Pistorius' murder sentence increased to 13 years and five months

Oscar Pistorius' prison sentence has been increased to 13 years and five months.

The South African appeals court has more than doubled the former sprinter's jail term for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Judges ruled his sentence will now be 13 years and five months, up from six years.

It comes as the state argued that his original sentence of six years was "shockingly lenient". His’ backers maintain that he did not intend to kill Steenkamp.

Pistorius had already served a year in jail for manslaughter, before his "flawed" conviction was changed to murder by South Africa's Supreme Court in 2015.

Onlookers speculated the South African faced a possible 15-year jail term for the killing on Valentine's Day in 2013.

The paralympian, who had the lower part of his legs amputated when he was a baby, claims he fired four shots into the toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home in the mistaken belief that an intruder was hiding behind it.

In 2014, judge Thokozile Masipa ruled the state failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder, but may still be guilty of culpable homicide - the equivalent to the UK crime of manslaughter.

More to follow