Jayde’s father ‘was anxious’
AFORMER police officer yesterday described to the Port Elizabeth High Court the fears of a father on the day Jayde Panayiotou disappeared in April 2015.
Streicher Botha, an investigating officer at Protea Coin, testified on the sixth day of the trial of Jayde’s husband, Christopher Panayiotou, and his two co-accused, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko, who are charged with murder.
Botha explained to the court how he was involved in the initial investigation upon receiving information that Jayde’s bank card had been used in Kwanobuhle after she had gone missing.
Botha was responsible for viewing video footage at ATMs, and he often hands over footage to police to assist them in their investigations.
He told the court he arrived at an ATM in Kwanobuhle on April 21 last year and saw Jayde’s father, Derrick Inggs, who was very anxious and wanted to view the video footage himself.
“Myself and the custodians of the ATM met up. The deceased’s father was very anxious. He also wanted to get into the ATM cubicle. “We told him he was not allowed and myself and the custodians went to view the footage,” said Botha.
He told the court that at the first ATM he did not observe any movement but at the second he noticed movement at 7.25am and distributed a photo to at least 10 police officers. It later emerged that that particular photo was not of the suspect.
It was incorrectly distributed to the media.
Botha said they also visited a third ATM, but he observed no movement.
“After he withdrew the money we checked his slip and saw there was a 20-minute difference between the receipt and the recording machine.”
On seeing a 20-minute time difference he decided he should go back to the first ATM in Kwanobuhle the next day, April 22, last year.
On looking at the footage taken at 7.05am, Botha said, he noticed movement, but the photo of this footage was “unclear”.
He decided that this particular photo would be inadmissible in court and chose not to preserve it.
Botha conceded that the “unclear” photo was the image that supported the withdrawal on Jayde’s account.
The State alleges Panayiotou paid Luthando Siyoni, a bouncer from his Infinity nightclub, to hire hit man Vumazonke to kidnap and kill his schoolteacher wife.
The State also alleges that Nenembe assisted Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde at the behest of her husband. Siyoni has since turned State witness. Vumazonke died while in custody at St Albans prison.
The State alleges that after Jayde was driven to a remote area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle, Vumazonke fired two shots into her back and a final shot through her head.
Sibeko was the last person to be arrested, 15 months after the murder. – ANA