OSCAR Pistorius, the disabled track star who once commanded stellar heights of international competition at the Paralympic and Olympic Games, was found guilty on Friday of culpable homicide, equivalent to manslaughter, after being acquitted of murder charges for killing his girlfriend.

Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa agreed to extend Pistorius?s bail until his sentencing hearing begins, on October 13. She said she believed the defence?s explanation that Pistorius had sold his property to pay his legal fees and dismissed suggestions that he would try to flee the country.

The verdict marked the culmination of a closely watched drama that transfixed many around the world. Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013, saying he believed an intruder had entered his home.

Wielding a handgun loaded with hollow-point ammunition, he opened fire on a locked toilet cubicle door only to discover when he broke the door down with a cricket bat that Steenkamp was inside. The prosecution sought to prove that he intended to kill her, but he called her death an accident and a mistake.

Judge Masipa asked Pistorius, 27, to stand in the wooden dock in the North Gauteng High Court here in the South African capital as she pronounced her verdict. The athlete, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and black tie, looked straight ahead, his hands crossed in front of him, seemingly impassive after several instances during the trial when he wept, wailed and retched.

In the hushed courtroom, with members of both the Steenkamp and the Pistorius families in attendance, the judge told Pistorius that he had acted negligently when he opened fire.

The prosecution, she said, had failed to bring ?strong circumstantial evidence? to support its case of murder, while Pistorius?s version of events ?could reasonably be true?.

After the shooting, Pistorius had been prompt in calling for help, the judge said. He prayed to God and sought to resuscitate Steenkamp, a model and law-school graduate, and his behaviour, the judge said, ?was inconsistent? with that of someone who wanted to commit murder.

The verdicts represented a crushing blow for the lead prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, who had demanded that Pistorius be convicted of premeditated murder, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum jail term of 25 years.

BLADE RUNNER?S CHARGESHEET

Count 1: MURDER (pre-meditated and lesser straight charge)

VERDICT: NOT GUILTY

n CULPABLE HOMICIDE of Steenkamp on Feb. 14, 2013

Verdict: GUILTY

Possible Sentence: Up to 15 years in prison

Count 2: DISCHARGING A FIREARM IN PUBLIC

VERDICT: GUILTY

Pistorius accused of firing a

bullet into the floor of Tasha?s restaurant, Johannesburg, on January 11, 2013.

Possible Sentence: Up to five years in prison

Count 3: ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF AMMUNITION

VERDICT: NOT GUILTY

Pistorius had .38 calibre ammunition in his safe, and did not have a licence for a gun that takes this ammunition, or a permit for it. Pistorius claims he was keeping it for his father, who declined to testify in support of him.

– SARAH LYALL & ALAN COWELL