Leigh: Movie 'trapped' Moodley
2005-07-31 21:15
Lizel Steenkamp and Lukas Meyer
Johannesburg - Donovan Moodley came up with the plan for the abduction and murder of Leigh Matthews after watching the thriller Trapped, in which South Africa's Oscar star, Charlize Theron, has a lead role.
Sources within the police confirmed this sensational new information.
Moodley, 25, has already admitted guilt and will be sentenced on Thursday in the Johannesburg high court.
Moodley admitted during police questioning that he thought of the plan after watching Trapped.
But the case against him was so watertight, it wasn't necessary to use this additional information against the murderer.
Trapped (2002) is about a ruthless psychopath (Kevin Bacon) who uses his girlfriend (Courtney Love) and a male friend to carry out his "perfect plan" - so perfect that before he crosses paths with Theron, he has already managed, on four occasions, to extort large sums of money from rich people through abductions.
Kidnapped before
Coincidentally, Moodley told Leigh's father, Rob Matthews, by telephone last year that he had abducted people before.
Rapport also established last week that it is suspected Moodley planned for two-and-a-half months to abduct a student from Bond University's campus for a ransom.
Meanwhile it has come to light that a policeman was in the car with Rob Matthews on the evening of July 9 last year when he was on his way to deliver ransom money to Moodley.
However, Matthews was in such a panic that he stopped next to the highway about a kilometre from the meeting point and forced the officer to get out of the car.
On the day of the abduction, Moodley threatened to kill Leigh if her father should dare inform the police.
Matthews told Rapport he did this because he was determined to honour his agreement with his daughter's abductor.
Raid on cold-storage facility
"It was my right to decide on this; after all, it was my daughter who had been abducted."
In another development, Rapport learned that the investigating team performed another raid on a cold-storage facility just three weeks ago, in the hope of arresting a second suspect.
Advocate Zaais van Zyl SC, deputy director of public prosecution and prosecutor in the case, told Rapport the investigation would not necessarily be over once the court case had come to an end.
This means the police can still follow up on leads and continue the investigation into someone else's involvement in Leigh's abduction and murder.
In written statements submitted last week, Moodley said he had shot Leigh four times in a grass field in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, on July 9 - the same day he abducted her - and left her body there.
By way of his legal representative, advocate Johan Pretorius, Moodley denied that he moved the body to a cold-storage facility and maintained that the grass field where the body had been discovered on July 21 is the place where he murdered Leigh.
It is a mystery why Moodley admitted guilt on charges of abduction, extortion and murder within a half an hour of his first appearance in court on Monday, but vehemently opposes the cold-storage allegations.
'Hiding something'
Van Zyl said: "He admits guilt, but doesn't take the court into his confidence. He is still hiding something.
"Here there is no general remorse as it would appear at first glance, but we can't force any accused to talk."
In his final argument on Friday, Van Zyl asked that Moodley should be sent to jail for a term longer than life.
"He committed a murder at a place that has still not been pointed out, stored the body for 11 days in a secret place which to date has not been found and created a murder scene by 'planting' bullet casings from his own firearm next to the body."