Port Elizabeth - A police officer and former family friend of the Panayiotous testified how murder accused Christopher Panayiotou had grown up in front of him and how he had attended his wedding to Jayde Panayiotou.
Detective Warrant Officer Leon Eksteen, from the police’s Organised Crime Unit, who had been friends with the Panayiotous for 16 years prior to Jayde’s murder last year, testified in the ongoing murder trial of Christopher Panayiotou and two co-accused who face charges relating to Jayde’s murder.
A trial-within-a-trial is currently underway which aims to deal with admissibility of a video recording between alleged middleman Luthando Siyoni and Panayiotou during an undercover police sting operation on April 29 last year.
The school teacher was found dead on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle during April last year, and her husband is charged with orchestrating her murder.
Eksteen described to the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday how he had attended the couple’s wedding and how Christopher would call him when he needed advice on “life”.
He said that Christopher had grown up in front of his eyes and that the businessman had been just a young boy when he had befriended the Panayiotous all those years ago.
Eksteen and the Panayiotous have since become estranged.
The detective, who has 28 years experience working in the police, was not initially involved in Jayde’s murder case.
He told the court how on the day of Jayde’s disappearance he had received a call from Christopher’s father Costa, who asked him for help with the search for the missing schoolteacher.
During the search for Jayde, Eksteen got involved to help out as a “friend” and not in his official capacity as a police oficer.
Eksteen later became directly involved in the investigation after the Investigating Officer Kanna Swanepoel requested his assistance.
“Kanna asked if I could be of assistance because I knew accused number 1 (Christopher) and that accused number 1 was implicated by Luthando Siyoni.”
Police then put a plan in place where Siyoni would call Panayiotou. Eksteen then decided what the bouncer would say to the businessman in several calls recorded between the two men.
A few calls were played out in court on Monday.
“Boss, I’m in deep trouble, I need to call you,” Siyoni is heard telling Panayiotou, who then tells the bouncer to call him back in 15 minutes.
Siyoni previously testified that police “forced” and “threatened” him to call his boss as part of the sting operation – it was either cooperate or face jail time, this according to the bouncer.
“They said I must make Chris confess [to his wife’s murder] so that there can be something that can cause him to be arrested because I was given the money by him,” Siyoni previously told the court.
Eksteen told Siyoni what to tell Panayiotou and the two then eventually met at a garage.
A recording device was placed in Siyoni’s vehicle who then managed to convince Panayiotou to get into his vehicle.
The State contends that Siyoni’s meeting with Panayiotou during the police sting operation happened because the bouncer wanted to verify his version of events to police.
The Section 204 witness, who was also declared hostile, has since backtracked on the contents of statements he made to police where he implicated the businessman.
The defence want the video recorded during the sting operation ruled inadmissible.
The State alleges that Panayiotou hired the bouncer from his Infinity nightclub to recruit hitmen to kidnap and kill Jayde because she was a “financial burden”.
The trial continues.
African News Agency