Paralympic gold medalist Pistorius faces a minimum 15-year jail term

Oscar Pistorius is seen with sister Aimee after proceedings on the third day of his resentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa June 15, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

PRETORIA - Oscar Pistorius shuffled through a Pretoria court without his prosthetic legs on June 16.

The 29-year-old faces a minimum 15-year jail term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. The case has attracted worldwide interest and divided South Africa. He will be sentenced on July 6.

Pistorius has always said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria home, killing her almost instantly.

During his closing arguments, defence lawyer Barry Roux asked the gold medallist, known as the "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, to walk on his stumps to show the difficulty he faced dealing with the threat of an intruder.

The lower part of his legs were amputated when he was a baby.

His body shaking with emotion, Pistorius removed his prosthetics and stood on his stumps for about five minutes in front of the court television camera, wiping away tears with a tissue.

"The accused was vulnerable because of his disability," Roux said. "His failure to conduct a rational thought process does not negate his vulnerability."

The defence says Pistorius did not deliberately kill model and law graduate Steenkamp and was "a broken man", calling for a non-custodial sentence that includes community service.