Jilted ex admits to killing
A JILTED boyfriend has admitted gunning down a young woman, saying he had done so after hearing of her “clandestine” meeting with a married man.
On Tuesday, Dhayalan “Tyrone” Pillay, 33, of Croftdene, Chatsworth, pleaded guilty to shooting Annelene Pillay, 26, a customer care controller for a shipping and logistics company in Jacobs, Durban, on November 29, 2016.
Pillay told the Durban High Court via his counsel, Patrick Mkhumbuzi, that shortly before, he had received a call from a woman who wanted to meet him urgently. When they met, she told him of the relationship between Annelene and her husband, he said.
“She showed me a printout which indicated there were messages exchanged between the deceased and her husband.
“I immediately called her (Annelene) on her cellphone in an effort to establish the truthfulness of what I had been shown… but she avoided taking my calls.”
He said he drove to her workplace that day.
“I saw her exiting and proceeding down via an external open steel staircase to where her vehicle was parked. I started my vehicle and drove towards her vehicle. I called out her name… pleading to talk to her.
“When she saw me she immediately ran away towards the staircase. I felt enraged and immediately chased after her with an unlicensed firearm,” he said in his plea statement.
“As she ran up the staircase, I fired several shots at her direction and saw her falling down the stairs…
“When I realised the magnitude of my actions, I panicked and dropped the firearm on the ground as I ran back and jumped into my vehicle.”
The cause of death was determined as a perforating gunshot wound to the head. CCTV footage of the shooting was expected to be shown in court.
Annelene and Pillay were believed to have had a 10-year long relationship.
They had separated a month before her death.
Pillay stood in the dock with his head down, looking up only to plead guilty to the charges of murder and being in possession of a firearm without a licence.
Family members and friends of Annelene packed the courtroom on Tuesday. They looked relieved at the plea.
Her mother, Charmaine Pillay, told POST she could not bear to look at the man who had killed her child.
“He ripped my child away from me. As a mother I feel empty inside,” she said.
“My child was a happy and loving person, she had so much more to look forward to in her future. Every day I wish I could bring her back.”
She said Pillay must now face the “full wrath of the law for robbing us of our child”.
“We have not lost faith in the justice system, justice for our daughter will prevail.”