Unrepentant Panayiotou gets life

CRITICISED: JUDGE SEES LACK OF REMORSE FOR WIFE’S MURDER

Victim Jayde’s family jumped from their seats in jubilation at the handing down of the sentence.

Christopher Panayiotou was sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife Jayde in April 2015 and was wholly criticised for his complete lack of remorse and defiance in not taking responsibility for his actions.

“The execution months in the making. It involved a string of would-be assassins and when the willing killer was eventually found, time, money and energy was expended to ensure its success.

“In all that time, Jayde was blissfully unaware that the man she shared her bed with had set in motion a process which would ultimately lead to her death.

“When the video was played here in this very courtroom and his involvement in her murder exposed, he remained nonchalant. Maybe, to him, it was just business, given his acumen for it,” Judge Dayalin Chetty said before he sentenced Panayiotou to life imprisonment.

In Court A in the Port Elizabeth High Court, Jayde’s family jumped from their seats in jubilation and displayed three middle fingers, a symbol from the Hunger Games movie franchise, a favourite of Jayde’s.

The three finger salute is a symbol of thanks, admiration was and to say goodbye to someone you love.

Panayiotou’s co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, while Zolani Sibeko was jailed for 15 years on conspiracy to commit murder.

Panayiotou had hired self confessed middleman Luthando Siyoni to hire a hitman to kidnap and kill Jayde. The schoolteacher was kidnapped outside her home in Kabega Park while waiting for a lift to work. She was shot execution-style on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle. A warrant of arrest has since been issued for Siyoni, subsequent to the court’s finding that that the Section 204 witness was not indemnified from prosecution.

Jayde’s mother Michelle Inggs said that the family were satisfied with the sentence handed

He avoided responsibility for his conduct.

down.

In passing down sentence, Chetty was scathing towards Panayiotou’s conduct while the businessperson remained stony-faced throughout proceedings, showing no emotion, even after his fate was read out.

Chetty said that it had become apparent from the inception of the trial that Panayiotou had taken no responsibility for his actions.

“As the evidence unfolded and his orchestration of Jayde’s murder was laid bare, he remained indifferent and, notwithstanding the sheer weight of the evidence against him, persisted in avoiding responsibility for his conduct,” said Chetty. – ANA