Durban - The State believes that triple murder accused Colin Pillay killed his girlfriend Jane Govindasamy - and her two daughters - because he had learnt that she was seeing another man, and wanted nothing more to do with him.
Pillay had sent Govindasamy three messages the day she was killed, about her seeing somebody else and calling her a “ho” (whore).
Senior State advocate Cheryl Naidu told Pillay, who has been under cross-examination for two days, the reason he killed Jane was because she was seeing someone else.
According to cellphone evidence presented to the court by two experts, there was no communication between Govindasamy and Pillay for four days leading up to the murders, until Pillay sent her SMSes on the morning she and her daughters were killed.
Naidu said Pillay’s reference to Govindasamy as a “ho”, meant he thought of her as a prostitute.
But Pillay said he was joking when he sent the messages about her seeing somebody else. He also disputed that he bore any ill-feelings towards her by referring to her as a “ho”.
Govidasamy and her daughters Nikita, 16, and Denisha, 22, were found
dead at their Phoenix home on September 20.
Naidu said Denisha, who allegedly did not like the idea that her mother was having an affair with Pillay, was stabbed several times, while Jane and Nikita were strangled.
Naidu alleged that Denisha was brutally stabbed because Pillay saw her as an obstacle to his relationship with her mother.
Pillay had testified that he used to spend nights at Govindasamy’s house when her husband worked night shift, but stopped going inside after Denisha moved back home.
“It is clear that Jane was seeing someone else. It is obvious from the cellphone records that she wanted nothing to do with you. If you did not mean to call her a ‘ho’, then what were you intending to say? Because the impression it creates is that you were angry with her, and thought of her as a ‘ho’,” Naidu said.
Pillay disputed that, but could not provide an explanation. “I was driving and texting. I must have made a mistake about that. When I said I knew she was seeing somebody else, that was just a joke. I know in my heart that she did not see somebody else,” he said.
But records show that the last cellphone communication between Govindasamy and Pillay was on the day she was murdered, while she was at work. Asked what they spoke about, Pillay said he could not remember. But when pressed for answers, he said it was about a tyre he was supposed to drop off at her house.
“I can’t remember; it was a long time ago. I suffer from short-term memory loss. I have a lot to think about. At Westville Prison it is not a home, it’s hell,” he said.
Naidu said Pillay was deliberately confusing things to hide the truth.
“The reason you choose not to remember is that you are trying to hide the truth that you threatened to kill Jane and her daughter Denisha, and the reason Jane called Denisha was to warn her you were coming to the house.
“Your main target was Jane, and to get to her you needed to be in her house. After you killed Denisha, who was the thorn in your relationship, you folded her into the wardrobe like a doll. And while trying to clear the murder scene, Nikita walked in on you,” she said.
Naidu asked why Pillay did not communicate with Jane the day the bodies were found, suggesting he had not done so for he knew she was dead.
She interrogated him further on why he never tried to call Govindasamy after he heard that she had been murdered to confirm if it was true.
Pillay said he did not have airtime, but his cellphone records show that he made several calls that morning.
“You did not call Jane, because you knew she was dead,” Naidu said.