Oscar Pistorius begins process of appealing murder conviction

Six-time Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius has lodged papers requesting an appeal against his murder conviction.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa changed the 29-year-old's culpable homicide verdict to murder in December.

Pistorius was initially handed a five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he shot dead through a toilet door at his home in Pretoria on Valentine's Day 2013.

The double amputee has maintained that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired the gun, but judges in Bloemfontein opted to convict Pistorius of murder as they believed that the athlete would have known that death was a possible result of his actions.

The Paralympian's defence team have now lodged papers at the Constitutional Court, claiming that the appeals court made fundamental errors, according to BBC News.

Pistorius spent just under a year in prison before being transferred to house arrest, which he remains under.