Port Elizabeth – Murder-accused Christopher Panayiotou’s bouncer was so knee-deep in a blissful sleep that he was snoring while being transported by police to Fort Beaufort where he would make a confession to implicate his boss, the Port Elizabeth High Court heard on Tuesday.
Warrant Officer Dirk Greef, who was not directly involved in the investigation, testified in the ongoing murder trial involving Panayiotou and his two co-accused. The trio are charged with the murder of school teacher Jayde Panayiotou during April last year. Tuesday would have been her 31st birthday.
Luthando Siyoni, a Section 204 witness who was also declared hostile, has since backtracked on his ‘middleman’ status. Siyoni previously testified that he was deprived of sleep whilst on the journey, felt tense and police officers offered him no sustenance, in that he was starving.
However, Greef told the court a contrasting version of the road trip, that Siyoni was so relaxed he even laughed at the officer’s jokes — Greef went back to the day during April 2015 he travelled with a colleague to transport the bouncer after he received a request from a detective who was investigating the case.
“When we were driving Siyoni asked me when can he see a lawyer, I said anytime that you want and I asked him specifically do you want to see one now. Siyoni said no that he was just asking and we proceeded,” Greef said.
“[At some point in the journey] he started to snore and I still [jokingly] said to [a colleague] I can’t even sleep now because [Siyoni] was keeping me awake,” Greef told the court.
Answering questions from the prosecution, Greef said that when he first met Siyoni he noted the bouncer had a swollen left eye, Greef then said he specifically jotted this down in his pocket book.
“So if I transported Siyoni to Fort Beaufort no one can say I assaulted this man in anyway. I also made Siyoni sign in my pocket book that I observed his injury,” he said.
Prosecutor Marius Stander asked: “Did you notice a split lip?”
Greef replied: “Not at all, there was no bleeding I would of noticed.”
Greef told the court that Siyoni’s pants were never torn down because if the trousers were torn he would of arranged for new pants as it would of been “humiliating” for both men to see.
While in the witness box Siyoni had claimed extensive torture and brutal assault by police hands at the time he was taken in for questioning at the Kwanobuhle South African Police Station, before he was taken to Fort Beaufort.
The bouncer claimed he was beaten with a tube, stood on by cops while blood dripped down his face.He said he was forced into saying what police “wanted him to say”.
On their way back to Port Elizabeth, Greef recalled in detail how they stopped at a Total Garage to buy pies.
“We stopped at the Total Garage and I gave money to [my colleague] to buy us pies. I still gave him a packet of biscuits I had, I can still recall the cool drink, because [my colleague] inquired whether he wanted a Coke or Energade as he was a fitness freak,” said Greef.
Greef said that Siyoni didn’t talk much but laughed at his jokes.
“We were making jokes but the worst part was when he asked if we were married because I teased her [colleague] a lot,” said Greef.
Under cross examination Defence Advocate Terry Price SC asked Greef why he never recorded in his pocket book the conversations he had with Siyoni around obtaining a lawyer.
“To me this was all very straight forward. I took a man to make a confession. I made sure of my facts. I made sure he never sustained any injuries under my watch…If he [Siyoni] had requested a lawyer I would of gladly turned back and made the necessary arrangements,” said Greef.
Price then accused the cop of making up these conversations and said that the talks between Siyoni and Greef “never happened”.
The State alleges that Sinethemba Nemembe assisted Sizwe Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde at the behest of her husband Christopher. Vumazonke, who was the alleged link between Siyoni and other hitmen, has since died.
Jayde was driven to a remote area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle, where the alleged murder took place. The State contends Vumazonke fired two shots through Jayde’s back and a final shot through her head.
Zolani Sibeko was the last suspect to be arrested, 15 months after the murder. He was apparently placed – through cellphone mapping – outside Jayde’s complex in the days before her murder.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
African News Agency