'Like a monkey in a cage'

2005-07-26 22:32

Lucia Swart and Yvonne Beyers

Johannesburg - Donovan Moodley, 24, feels like "a monkey in a cage" when people sit behind him in court.

On Tuesday morning, Moodley climbed the steps to the dock in jangling leg-irons, and sat down without making eye contact with anyone.

The court was packed. In an attempt to find a seat, a few people sat down in the empty bench behind Moodley.

He shifted about uncomfortably until advocate Johan Pretorius came to his rescue.

"My client doesn't want people to sit behind him. It affects his dignity and he says he feels like a monkey in a cage," Pretorius said while Moodley stared at the floor in front of him.

The people had to shift out and stand on the steps.

Rob Matthews and his wife, Sharon, sat expressionlessly two rows behind the Moodley family and listened while a pathologist testified about their daughter's death.

The Matthews couple were visibly exhausted.

Kept their heads bowed

Matthews said when he and his wife walked into the court: "We are under great strain, but we expected it. We are all right and just glad that the whole process is under way."

Their daughter Karen, 22, was not sitting between her parents as she did on Monday.

Her father said: "She had a bad day on Monday, so she decided she would rather stay at home today."

The couple kept their heads bowed most of the time and stared in front of them while a pathologist and State prosecutor Zaais van Zyl SC paged through the album with photos of Leigh's corpse and the post-mortem.

During pathologist Professor Hendrik Scholtz's testimony, Van Zyl repeatedly held out the photo album so that Leigh's corpse and the wounds on her body and breasts could be seen clearly.

Moodley stared at the floor and wrote in a notebook while Scholtz testified that Moodley had moved Leigh's corpse.

Moodley supporters again filled one of the rows. His sister, Michal, was clearly worried about her brother.

Moodley's fiancée, Yeshika Singh, squeezed his hand for a moment after lunch before going to sit with the Moodley supporters again.

"He is as okay as he can be," said one of his friends.

Mrs Matthews held her head up and whispered in her husband's ear when Pretorius insisted that Moodley was "adamant" that he had not moved Leigh's corpse.

Van Zyl pointed to the photos again to support the State's case. The Matthews couple just stared expressionlessly at the evidence.

'Many escapes at court'

"It wasn't so bad to see and hear it," said Matthews after the evidence. "It was actually scientific and professional. It wasn't macabre at all."

When court adjourned, Pretorius asked if it was really necessary for Moodley to come to court wearing leg irons every day.

"Yes, there are many escapes at court," Van Zyl snapped while the people streaming out of the room looked around in surprise.

Van Zyl and Pretorius stared eye to eye for a moment before Van Zyl noticed everyone looking at them.

"You can all go home now. It's over for today," he said.

- Beeld