Port Elizabeth – Christopher Panayiotou's mistress Chanelle Coutts together with Panayiotou family members have visited the businessman while he has been incarcerated, the Port Elizabeth High Court heard on Friday.
Investigating officer, Kanna Swanepoel, was under cross-examination in the murder trial involving Panayiotou, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko who are charged with conspiring to kidnap and kill schoolteacher Jayde Panayiotou in April 2015.
Defence advocate Terry Price said that he had received information that the contents of Coutts's statement never came from her. "The statement contain things Coutts did not say and that is why she refused to sign... you wrote the statement and told her to sign," Price said to Swanepoel.
Swanepoel said that Coutts was unhappy about minor things but never signed anything without her lawyer Danie Gouws being present. But Price insisted that Swanepoel put things in the statement that Coutts had never said and therefore she refused to sign.
Price also claimed that Swanepoel wanted the recorded conversations of consultations Coutts had made – because he had treated her with "disrespect".
Swanepoel told the court that Coutts knew she was not allowed to visit Panayiotou at prison, but did so anyway. "But why did she write in the visitation book that she was visiting another murder accused, Jens Leunberg?" Swanepoel asked.
Price hit back saying that the Panayiotou family were assisting Leunberg as his family resided in Germany.
Swanepoel said that sending an undercover cop to prison was to observe Coutts and Panayiotou's visits – as visitations between the two were not allowed.
Price defended the visitations by saying that Coutts ran the family business. Commenting on information emerging before court, Judge Dayalin Chetty said that it was all very interesting but counsel needed to move on.
"This is all very interesting but we need to move on," said Chetty. Chetty asked that the trial-within-a-trial be wrapped up as soon as possible.
Prosecutor Marius Stander indicated the State would could at least two more witnesses. Chetty has yet to rule on the admissibility of a video recording taken during a police sting operation in which Panayiotou allegedly implicates him.
The trial will continue on Tuesday.