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The sad reality of life in South Africa is that we have so many men murdering their partners that it’s hard to keep up.
Wife killer Jason Rohde is currently clutching at straws in an attempt to get his murder conviction overturned, and wife killer Rob Packham has exhausted all of his legal avenues, but do you remember Christopher Panayiotou?
The family and friends of Jayde Panayiotou certainly do, and they say they will never forgive him.
In November 2017, Christopher was found guilty of orchestrating the 2015 murder of his wife, Jayde, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The men he hired to murder Jayde, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko, received life for murder and an additional 15 years for robbery, and 15 years for conspiracy to commit murder, respectively.
Christopher has previously appealed his sentence, but his return to court this week was to do with the trial of Luthando Siyoni, a nightclub bouncer he employed.
It’s alleged that Siyoni helped him arrange the hit on Jayde.
On Monday he took to the stand in the Gqeberha high court, reports The Sowetan, and admitted to his involvement in Jayde’s murder for the first time:
Currently serving a life sentence in St Albans Prison, Panayiotou said: “I am deeply, deeply sorry for the hurt and pain I caused everybody.”
The motive for the murder, Panayiotou said, was that he had been under immense pressure and could not keep up with everything going on in his life — a wife, mistress and a demanding job.
Panayiotou was having an affair with a woman he had dated prior to getting married.
Siyoni’s lawyer, advocate Siphokazi Cubungu, asked why, if he was under so much stress, Panayiotou didn’t take his own life, rather than paying hitmen to murder Jayde.
It’s worth revisiting the hidden camera footage showing a conversation between Panayiotou and Siyoni eight days after Jayde had been murdered, which was shown again in court this week.
From a transcript of the recording, here’s Panayiotou explaining why Siyoni must stop contacting him:
“You’ve been phoning me all day and they’re tracing my phone. Now you must destroy it. I have to tell them you’re phoning me else they’ll think I’m involved. You have to throw it away; the phone and the sim card my boy.
These boys [the killers] made it big. I told you to let them do it outside the house and take the bags and the rings and then they didn’t take the watch or anything. They just left everything there. You see, so it looks like a hit now. They’re after me, I can’t just meet you.”
It’s even worse when you watch the footage:
Siyoni’s defence argued that Siyoni was not a willing participant in the plot to kill Jayde, but eventually caved after being pressured by Panayiotou.
Given all of the above, it’s certainly no surprise that Jayde’s family aren’t in a rush to forgive Christopher.
Here’s her sister, Toni Inggs:
