Donovan Moodley, the murderer of student Leigh Matthews, claims that he is innocent and that he assisted three drug dealers.
|||Donovan Moodley, the murderer of Bond University student Leigh Matthews, was expected to return to the Johannesburg High Court today to present “the truth” of what really happened in 2005.
Moodley was convicted for Matthews’s murder more than six years ago after he confessed to the murder, and is serving a life term at the Johannesburg Medium B Prison in Diepkloof.
Moodley has now changed his tune, pleading his innocence, and claims he assisted three drug dealers who prowled the Bond University campus. He did not implicate the three out of fear that his family would be killed.
He is applying for a retrial, and for his conviction and sentence to be set aside.
In his 323-page affidavit, Moodley claims Matthews was killed by default as the three drug dealers, who he names only as Frank, Jemba and Allie, had originally targeted a French-speaking student called Gasper.
“Gasper came from an extremely wealthy family. They wanted me to help kidnap him and hold him for ransom as he owed them money. I was to offer him a lift home and stage a hijacking.
“They would hold us together, and when they got the money, I would be released with him,” Moodley said in the affidavit filed in the Johannesburg High Court.
For his trouble he would be paid R1 million.
The men, who he describes in court documents as “almost professional”, took his gun as a guarantee that he would stick to the plan.
But things did not work out as planned.
The men had waited for Gasper for three days at the campus, and when he did not show up, the men got “very aggressive” and changed their plan to “take someone else”.
That someone was Matthews. She was followed to her car, hijacked and driven to a park in Randburg.
There, she was tied up, gagged and blindfolded, said Moodley.
The men then drove back to the university to drop off Matthews’s car.
Fingerprints were wiped off and the group drove to Walkerville, where Matthews said her father could pay R500 000.
The man named as Frank was the one who called Matthews’s father Rob to make the ransom demand.
Matthews was then instructed to talk to her mother and tell her not to call the police, and to say she was fine.
When Matthews’s mother asked about the number of men, Frank held up one finger, instructing her to say just one man.
The men then lay in wait until it was dark, before Frank and Moodley drove to a place near the N1, where Matthews’s father was to drop off the money. He had earlier told them in a phone conversation that he had only R90 000.
After picking up the money, Moodley drove back to Walkerville with Frank to meet up with the rest of the men, he says in the affidavit.
When they arrived, “Jemba shot Leigh from behind… she was naked and fell like a brick, like she was dead. He (Jemba) then pulled her into the bush and three more shots were fired. When the first shot was fired, my knees gave way and I was crying,” he said.
At 6am the next day, Moodley said he took Matthews’s clothes, underwear and handbag and drove to a garage, where he bought a lighter and benzene.
“I went to a bush and burnt all her stuff and the clothes I had on,” he said.
Moodley claims it is incomprehensible how he could tie up and kidnap a student from a parking lot full of security guards. He also questioned the initial statement by Rob Matthews, which indicated a black man had picked up the money.
The State is opposing his application. - The Star