Panayiotou’s mistress walks tall

PORT ELIZABETH: Murder accused Christopher Panayiotou’s mistress, Chanelle Coutts, was at the Port Elizabeth High Court again yesterday, seemingly to support her lover.

On Monday, Coutts testified as a defence witness and at every opportunity avoided being photographed. Yesterday, however, Coutts walked confidently with the Panayiotou family. Holding her head up high, Coutts, 29, who worked as a manager at the Panayiotous’ OK Grocer, sat with Panayiotou’s mother, Fanoula, in the front seat of the court’s gallery.

Jayde’s mother, Michelle Inggs, was upset by Coutts’s presence and left court in tears. In her testimony on Monday, Coutts claimed that she had no knowledge of events that led up to the school teacher’s murder.

She told the court that from the start of the murder investigation, she and Christopher had decided to be honest about their affair. Coutts said she had “no idea” how the State got information on the alleged motive for Jayde’s murder.

The State alleges that Panayiotou had his wife killed in April 2015 because she was a financial burden. Coutts could not give any explanation on cellphone data evidence showing that her number and a number of a potential hitman had communicated at least 17 times during September 2014.

She simply said that she had no idea who the man, known only as Trompie, was. – ANA