Twist in Leigh court case

2005-07-21 14:49

Johanesburg - Donovan Moodley's defence team said on Thursday they were keeping their options open as to whether the alleged kidnapper and killer of student Leigh Matthews would give evidence.

Advocate Johan Pretorius, due to meet the prosecution on Thursday, said things could still change before Monday, when the trial begins.

"We'll see on Monday," he said, referring to newspaper reports this week that Moodley would not testify.

It has also been revealed that Matthews's killer kept her body on ice for 11 days before carefully staging the murder scene in the veld at Walkerville veld, where her body was discovered exactly a year ago on Thursday.

This was stated in the revised indictment against Donovan Moodley, whose trial will start on Monday at the Johannesburg High Court.

Body decomposed 'at different rates'

"He (the killer) removed her body to a place where he kept the body in a refrigeration/cooling facility", the summary of substantial facts now reads.

The prosecution also claim that on July 20, the day before a grass cutter discovered the naked body, Moodley "removed the body from where he had kept it and placed the body, together with four cartridges in a veld".

This confirmed newspaper reports in August last year that pathologists found the body had decomposed at different rates.

The places that had not decomposed were consistent with parts of the body that would come into contact with ice in a large container.

Prosecutor Zachariaas Van Zyl has also dropped one of the four charges Moodley initially faced.

The charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances has been dropped, but Moodley will still face charges of kidnapping, extortion and murder.

Cellphone call

The prosecution now alleges that Leigh's mother Sharon Matthews had tried in vain to phone her daughter before Moodley contacted the family just after noon on the day of the kidnapping.

It was earlier alleged that Sharon had called Leigh's cellphone but Moodley had answered it.

This week Rob Matthews, Leigh's father, told Sapa his family was ready to testify at Moodley's trial.

Matthews, 21, was snatched from the Sandton campus of Bond University on July 9 last year.

On the same night, during the ransom drop-off, Rob came within metres of his daughter's killer when he dropped an envelope with R50 000 out of his car window.

Shot in back of head

Initially the kidnapper demanded R300 000, but agreed to pick up an instalment on the dark N1 highway near the Grasmere tollgate south of the city.

Instead of returning Leigh, the kidnapper drove her to a dark field in Walkerville Manor, ordered her to strip naked and shot her in the back of the head.

It was not until July 21 that a grass cutter discovered her body lying metres from a Walkerville road. A massive police manhunt was then launched.

Investigating officer Superintendent Piet Byleveld finally made an arrest on October 4 2004.

Moodley, 24, at the time, made brief appearances in the Randburg magistrate's court but was not asked to plead.

He never applied for bail.

- SAPA