Cape Town - In an explosive development in the trial of honeymoon murder accused Shrien Dewani, Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso has ruled that emails found on his Dell laptop were inadmissible.
The emails, it emerged in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, contained details of an inner conflict Dewani had about marrying Anni Hindocha, whose murder he is accused of, and made his sexual orientation known.
Scotland Yard policeman Mark Roberts, who was involved in the early stages of the investigation against Dewani, took the stand on Tuesday morning and started testifying about the contents of Dewani's Dell laptop, which he had analysed.
Dewani allegedly used the laptop to access gay hook-up website Gaydar.net and gay fetish website Recon during his courtship with Anni.
The laptop, according to Roberts, also contained saved emails Dewani had received from an unidentified male with whom he had a sexual relationship in 2009.
Dewani received 53 emails from the unidentified person from June to August 2009.
As Roberts was about to divulge details of the emails, defence advocate Francois van Zyl SC objected on the basis of the relevance of the evidence.
He pointed out that Dewani had confided in the unidentified friend about his fears regarding his marriage to Anni and that the friend had told him that marriage was a serious commitment, which usually involved children.
Other details, including graphic sexual content, had no relevance to the murder, Van Zyl said, and was prejudicial to Dewani and his character.
Judge Traverso pointed out to State advocate Adrian Mopp that it was not in dispute that Dewani was conflicted about marrying Anni.
She ruled the evidence inadmissible, prompting Mopp to end his questioning.
Roberts was excused.
The ruling affects the very core of the State's case - that Dewani was motivated to arrange his wife's murder because he was a closet homosexual - not bisexual, as Dewani now claims.
The court adjourned so that the State could arrange a new witness.
Earlier in the trial it emerged that on his internet profiles Dewani described himself as a passive single, gay man, who was looking for a dominant guy and who “loves to train up young subs (submissives)”.
Dewani told the court that he was bisexual and had sexual interactions with men physically and online, but also interacted with women in the course of a relationship.
Former Gaydar employee Simon Johnson told the court on Monday that on the website Dewani described his sexual orientation as gay - not bisexual - on his profile, under the name asiansubguy.
He also indicated that he was looking for single gay men, bisexual gay men, couples or groups.
The court heard that Dewani's Gaydar profile was open for lengthy periods of time on November 15 and 16 - after Anni had been killed - while he was at the Cape Grace Hotel.
Dewani's sister removed his profile on November 21, 2010,as a result of the media attention the case attracted, his advocate said.
IOL