Durban -Aspirant model, Thenjiwe Griffiths, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her husband, many years her senior, failed in her bid for freedom at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday.
The 33-year-old, unemployed mother of one made an application for bail pending her appeal last month.
Griffiths was convicted in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last year for the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
She was also given 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Retired Richards Bay engineer Allan Griffiths, 60, was murdered in 2006.
His wife, who was 25 at the time, maintained her innocence throughout the trial, and continues to do so, even as she languishes in jail.
The couple had met at a club where prostitutes touted for business and were married in April 2005.
Soon afterwards, Allan wanted a divorce because she was abusive and assaulted him.
Judge Rishi Seegobin found that Griffiths had set up a ”hijacking” near Winterton during which her husband was killed.
She later told police they had been hijacked and that the hijackers had tried to rape her.
But the judge found her version was fabricated and concluded she was a cold, calculating killer who used her elderly husband for his money, and when that ran out, he was of no use to her.
In her bid for bail pending appeal, Griffiths said she had been convicted on circumstantial evidence, and that she had reasonable prospects of success on appeal before a full bench.
However, in denying Griffiths’ bail application, Seegobin, in a reserved judgment handed down on Thursday, agreed with the state, that Griffiths had been convicted of serious offences and simply because she had been granted leave to appeal against her conviction, it did not mean that she was entitled to bail.
Seegobin concluded that Griffiths posed a flight risk, as her past behaviour indicated she “did not consider herself bound to any place, and as such she could not be confined to a particular area”.
The judge said that in spite of her undertakings not to flee, he did not believe she was the type of person who could be relied upon.
“The applicant (Griffiths) has failed to persuade me that there are circumstances in her favour which can be described as exceptional, which justify her release on bail pending appeal,” Judge Seegobin said.
Griffiths’ appeal will be heard later this year before a full bench.
Daily News