Shrien Dewani trial commences in Capetown.

[Anna]

South African court to hear Shrien Dewani hired male prostitute before wedding to Anni

Leopold Leisser reportedly said Dewani told him during their liaisons that he felt he could not back out of upcoming wedding as his family would disown him

Anni Dewani, left, was shot dead in an apparent car jacking in Cape Town while her husband, Shrien, right, was unharmed Photo: PA

By Aislinn Laing, Cape Town
11:00PM BST 04 Oct 2014
A British businessman accused of having his wife murdered in a staged carjacking during their honeymoon in Cape Town visited a male prostitute for drug-fuelled sexual liaisons in the run-up to his wedding, his trial is expected hear when it opens in South Africa next week.
Shrien Dewani, 34, told Leopold Leisser that he was due to marry to a "nice, lovely girl” and could not break off the engagement, despite having strong feelings for men, because he would be “disowned by his family”, it was reported.
Mr Leisser, a German national who trades under the name The Master, is said to have told police he met Mr Dewani, a care home owner from Bristol, through the homosexual introductions website Gaydar and he was “very charming and quite educated".
Mr Leisser alleged he saw Mr Dewani three times between September 2009 and April 2010, at his own flat in Birmingham and at the Presidential Kensington Apartments in Earl's Court and they took drugs during their meetings.
His evidence is contained in a statement he gave the Metropolitan Police after Mr Dewani’s new wife Anni died in an apparent carjacking in Cape Town in April 2010 which South Africa’s Star newspaper claims to have obtained.
Mr Dewani was allowed to return to the UK but South African police asked for him to be extradited back to the country after three men, including the driver of the taxi the couple were attacked in, were arrested over the fatal shooting and claimed Mr Dewani had paid them more than £1,000 to do it.
The millionaire businessman, who was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the incident, fought a long legal battle against returning to South Africa but was ordered to do so by a panel of High Court judges in April this year after his condition improved.
Since then, he has been treated at Cape Town’s Valkenberg Hospital, where psychiatrists have confirmed he is now fit to stand trial.
Among those who are expected to give evidence for the state or have statements read to the court when his trial begins at Cape Town’s High Court this week are Mr Leisser.
The prostitute is said to have given police phone records, text messages, a form Mr Dewani filled in before their first meeting stating his sexual preferences, and even a photograph of the defendant.
Detectives have confirmed the number Mr Leisser gave them was Mr Dewani’s, The Star reported, and interviewed neighbours of the London flat where the prostitute said they met, who confirmed Mr Dewani was the occupant.
Mr Leisser told police Mr Dewani paid him up to £400 a time for three liaisons and he bent his "no-sleep over" rule because "he was very friendly and I liked him... he was very charming and quite educated", the newspaper reported.
During their third encounter, he told him he was getting married, it added.
"He said that she was a nice, lovely girl and that he liked her but that he could not break out of it in any way because he would be disowned by the family,” Mr Leisser is quoted as saying.
“He also said they he needs to find a way out of it. He also told me that he had met another guy previously that he could have fallen for and he came close to telling his family about it, but he didn't."
Mr Dewani denies charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping, and defeating the ends of justice. He has previously said he was at the gym and a job interview when he is alleged to have seen Mr Leisser.
His trial is expected to begin on Monday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/11141567/South-African-court-to-hear-Shrien-Dewani-hired-male-prostitute-before-wedding-to-Anni.html

[Anna]

[colombosstogey]

And so it begins.

[Anna]

Mr Dewani faces five charges including murder and lying about the circumstances of Swedish national Anni's death.
Prosecutors argue that Mr Dewani conspired with Cape Town residents Zola Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Xolile Mngeni to kill his wife.
The court heard forensic evidence that the fatal shot was delivered "at close range", with a suggestion that Mrs Dewani might have been grabbing on to "someone or something" at the time she died.
A video taken shortly after her bloodied body was found was also shown to the court.
Through defence lawyer Francois Van Zyl, Mr Dewani said he had "had sexual interaction with both males and females".
"I consider myself to be bisexual," the court was told.
"My sexual interactions with males were mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs, including prostitutes," Mr Dewani's witness statement said.
Mr Dewani said he had abnormally low levels of hormones, rendering his chances of having children slim. He said he discussed this with Anni, whom he began dating in summer 2009.
Anni Dewani's sister, Ami Denborg (l) and mother Nilam Hindocha (r) attended the first day of the court case
The court also heard of a volatile relationship between the newlyweds, including an "angry disagreement" in May 2010.
A letter sent later from Mr Dewani said "I really do love you. Want to be with you forever."
But Anni wanted to call off the wedding, claiming Mr Dewani was "too controlling", the court heard.
"We really frustrated each other, we were in love," he said through his lawyer.

At the scene - Karen Allen, Africa correspondent
Shrien Dewani stood upright and for the most part composed on the first day of his trial.
It is a trial that many believed would never be held in South Africa after a protracted extradition battle and concerns about Mr Dewani's mental health.
Defence lawyer Francois van Zyl revealed that Mr Dewani had said he was "bisexual", a fact that may serve to neutralise some of the fevered press speculation of recent months and police statements given by a gay escort who claims he spent time with Mr Dewani.
The coming days are likely to see a detailed public examination of the couple's relationship.
But in a statement read out in court Mr Dewani said he had been "instantly attracted" to Anni when they first met and he sobbed quietly when a "love letter" he wrote to her after an argument, was read out in court.

The pair married later in 2010 and travelled to South Africa for their honeymoon. According to Mr Dewani, he bought flexible tickets for the trip.
It was when the couple arrived in Cape Town that Mr Dewani met taxi driver Zola Tonga, who has already admitted his part in Anni's murder.
Tonga told Mr Dewani he was an "executive tour guide", and was asked to hire a helicopter as a surprise for Anni.
The driver, according to Mr Dewani, also helped to change £5,000 in order to get "a good market rate".
Shrien Dewani's mother Snila, father Prakesh and brother Preyen are also in court
On the night of Anni's death Mr Dewani was carrying "a large amount of cash", and Tongo had texted him to ask if he still had money for the helicopter ride.
Later, when they were in the taxi, Tongo pulled off the motorway and the car was stopped, the court heard.
"The next thing I recall is somebody next to me, who told me to lie down. The person had a gun in his hand. He was waving the gun in the air," Mr Dewani's statement said.
"We were both terrified and immediately complied with his demands. I was lying half on top of Anni. Another person was behind the steering wheel. I do not know where Tongo was at that stage."
Then, one of the gang asked Mr Dewani to get out of the car. When he refused, the court heard, a gun was held at his head before he got out of the car.
He then tried to find help before being taken back to his hotel by police.
Mr Dewani said he later met Tongo, whom he felt "sorry" for, and had planned to give him some money.
The case was adjourned until Wednesday.
 
Extracts of a letter from Shrien Dewani to Anni, dated May 2010
Dear Anni,
I realise we are very different but I have always believed in a relationship you can work through those differences. When we first met I immediately liked you ... And no not just because you are pretty ... but because you made me laugh.
I have always wanted a girl that I can be friends with. One that understands me - and I know that that is not easy. I know that I am so focussed that some people think I am intense. I am focussed on achieving things in life.
I really do love you, and hence I don't want you to be unhappy. I want to be with you forever but not if that makes you unhappy ... that I could not bear ... I really hope we work this out.
I am really sorry that I have made you feel like this. You are so precious to me - I know I don't always show it. I often find it difficult to show how much you mean to me ... But please do not think this is because I don't love you.
Speak to you later
Love always
Shrien
//
South African Xolile Mngeni was convicted of premeditated murder for shooting Mrs Dewani and jailed for life.
Prosecutors claimed he was hired to carry out the killing.
Zola Tongo, was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the killing and another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for 25 years.

More  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29476713

[John]

Looks very much as was suspected, the marriage was a convenience intended merely to camouflage Dewani's sordid secret.   What I haven't quite worked out yet though is, was the last four years simply a delaying tactic?

[Anna]

LAST UPDATED AT 13:14 ON Tue 7 Oct 2014
The lifestyle of British millionaire Shrien Dewani was revealed in "uncomfortable" detail on the first day of his trial for the murder of his wife on their honeymoon in South Africa.

After four years of legal battles and delays, the trial finally got underway yesterday in Cape Town, where Dewani is accused of hiring three men to kill his wife in a staged carjacking on 13 November 2010.

On Monday he denied the fives charges against him, which include murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice, and within just a few hours of proceedings, intimate details of his sexuality and luxurious lifestyle were laid bare.

In a statement read out by his lawyer, Dewani revealed that he was "bisexual" and has had "sexual interaction with both males and females".

The court heard how his sexual interactions with men were "mostly physical experiences or email chats" with people he "met online or in clubs, including prostitutes such as Leopold Leisser".

Karen Allen, the BBC's Africa correspondent, says the admission may serve to "neutralise" some of the "fevered" press speculation in recent months about gay escort Leisser, who claims Shrien paid him for sex. She predicts that the trial is likely to see a "detailed public examination" of Anni and Shrien's relationship.

Leisser previously claimed Shrien was desperate to get out of his marriage to Anni, but Shrien yesterday insisted that he was in love with his wife, despite the fact that they were "both headstrong and often argued with each other".

Allen says Shrien "stood upright and for the most part composed on the first day of his trial", although he "sobbed quietly" when one of his love letters to Anni was read out in court.

The court also heard how Shrien hired a private jet to propose to Anni in Paris, held a week-long stag party in Las Vegas and organised a lavish wedding in Mumbai.

His millionaire lifestyle was "revealed in uncomfortable detail", writes David Smith in The Guardian. For the most part Shrien was "composed and businesslike, but there were glimpses of tears and brittleness", he says.

The defendant, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, anxiety attacks and depression after his wife's murder, appeared "unusually sensitive to noise, twitching on occasion, and wore headphones to amplify whoever was addressing the court", adds Smith.

Shrien's bisexual revelation was plastered across most of South Africa's newspapers today, but a few focused on the "harrowing" video of Anni's body shown in court.

"The full weight and horror of the murder was brought into the courtroom when police video footage of the crime scene where Anni was found was screened," says Marianne Thamm at South Africa's online newspaper the Daily Maverick.

Thamm says there were "gasps" from the courtroom at the sight of Anni "slumped in the back seat of the silver VW Sharan, still wearing the black cocktail dress and strappy high heels she had dressed herself in only a few hours earlier".

Meanwhile, the Daily Beast describes how her hair was "blowing in the breeze" as the camera panned from her "diamante-encrusted heels to her blood-soaked body, which was punctured by bullets in her left arm and her throat".

http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/shrien-dewani/3997/shrien-dewani-arrives-for-first-day-of-honeymoon-murder-trial
 

[colombosstogey]

Looks very much as was suspected, the marriage was a convenience intended merely to camouflage Dewani's sordid secret.   What I haven't quite worked out yet though is, was the last four years simply a delaying tactic?

Like a fox in a corner, clever fox, he cried mental health issues and the idiots in the UK accepted it, we have to protect murderers in this country dont you know.

I know Africa i lived there. IF you dont give a gunman what they want they shoot you they dont ask you, they shoot you or hack you to death. A real attack would have raped her, and maybe even him, and killed them both and even taken her beautiful shoes.

They dont leave witnesses. When we were there in Nairobi a journalist was killed because he wouldnt give over his car. He managed to explain to police before he died. I think then they were coming in from Uganda like bloody pirates.

That poor sad girl, what a horrible way to die. God rest her soul.

I dont even care if this guy is gay or straight, but he has an evil heart either way.

[Anna]

Shrien Dewani 'agreed price for wife murder'
British businessman Shrien Dewani agreed to pay about £1,300 to a hitman for the murder of his wife Anni in South Africa, a court has been told.
On the second day of the trial in Cape Town, Mziwamadoda Qwabe said he was asked to make it look like a hijacking.
Mr Dewani, 34, from Bristol, denies murdering his wife Anni, 28, on their honeymoon in 2010.
The couple were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through Gugulethu township near Cape Town.
Qwabe told the Western Cape High Court that taxi driver Zola Tonga had told him "there was a husband who wanted his wife to be killed".
Mr Dewani faces five charges, including murder and lying about the circumstances of Swedish national Anni's death.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe has already been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Anni Dewani
Qwabe, from Cape Town, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 for the murder of Anni Dewani.
Prosecutors claim Mr Dewani conspired with him, and other Cape Town residents Zola Tongo and Xolile Mngeni.
Qwabe, 29, told the court Tongo phoned him and said he had a job that needed to be done - that someone needed to be killed.
He said Tongo agreed to meet him the next day to discuss the murder, and a price of 15,000 rand (about £1,330 at the exchange rate at the time) was agreed.
The pair then arranged to meet up with Tongo's taxi for the attack, during which Mr Dewani's phone would also be taken.
He told the court the money was due to be left in a "cubby hole" in the vehicle which would later be split before the pair spent an evening "socialising".
Qwabe was asked if there was any discussion about a weapon. He said: "I knew there would be a firearm involved."
He told the court Tongo called him later and told him the route the taxi would take on the evening of 13 November 2010.
Shrien Dewani, who is on trial in South Africa, denies any involvement in his wife's death
Describing the carjacking, Qwabe said: "[Mngeni] had the gun. As it [Tongo's car] approached I got into the driver's side.
"[Mngeni] got into the passenger side and Zola got into the back. I saw in the (rear view) window a guy and behind me was a lady," he said.
"I ordered Zola to get out of the car. He told me the money was in a pouch behind the front passenger door.
"I stopped the vehicle, I asked the husband to get out of the car.
"The husband was now out of the vehicle and I drove on."
Qwabe told the court he was behind the wheel when Anni was fatally wounded.
Anni Dewani was killed in the back of a taxi in South Africa
He said he was concentrating on the road at the moment Mngeni killed her.
"I heard a gun shot. [Mngeni] said 'I shot the lady'.
"I pulled over on to the pavement and stopped the car. I saw she [Anni] was on the back seat of the car."
Qwabe said he found the bullet casing then threw his gloves away.
He told the court 10,000 rand was in the pouch and 4,000 rand was seized from "the husband".
Qwabe admitted he had lied in court at a bail hearing before he admitted his guilt over the murder.
Francois van Zyl, representing Dewani, said: "At that bail hearing you testified under oath, you pleaded not guilty because you said you had an alibi. Is that a lie?"
Anni Dewani's father, Vinod Hindocha, was among family members to attend the trial in Cape Town
Qwabe replied: "My lawyer at the time told me to plead not guilty."
Mr van Zyl said: "I repeat the question. Was that a lie under oath?"
Qwabe answered: "Yes."
The court was told there had been no conversations with Tongo about how Anni would be killed, only that it had to look like a hijacking.
Mr van Zyl asked: "You never had a discussion about how this woman was going to be killed?"
Qwabe answered: "No, sir."
He told the court it was not decided who would strike the fatal blow, what weapon would be used, or where the killing would take place.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
More on This Story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29534010

[Anna]

Like a fox in a corner, clever fox, he cried mental health issues and the idiots in the UK accepted it, we have to protect murderers in this country dont you know.

I know Africa i lived there. IF you dont give a gunman what they want they shoot you they dont ask you, they shoot you or hack you to death. A real attack would have raped her, and maybe even him, and killed them both and even taken her beautiful shoes.

They dont leave witnesses. When we were there in Nairobi a journalist was killed because he wouldnt give over his car. He managed to explain to police before he died. I think then they were coming in from Uganda like bloody pirates.

That poor sad girl, what a horrible way to die. God rest her soul.

I dont even care if this guy is gay or straight, but he has an evil heart either way.

Yes.... another poor girl dead at the hands of evil. He has had plenty of time for rehearsal though.
 Why do they give them so much time, excuses, excuses, before going to court? It baffles me.
Her family are suffering the same as Reeva's. Very sad.
This world of easy killing, is getting worse by the minute and the courts are not helping it, one bit.

[Anna]

From 6th Monday

[Anna]

latest.........

Dewani trial: hitman says 'My understanding was that a lady would be killed'

Hitman tells court how he was hired to kill wife of honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani


By Aislinn Laing, Cape Town
9:33AM BST 08 Oct 2014
Shrien Dewani has come face to face with the man he allegedly hired to murder his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town for the first time since the night of the shooting four years ago.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 29, is one of two prosecution witnesses who have claimed that Shrien Dewani paid them to kill his wife Anni in an allegedly staged carjacking.
Both he and Zola Tongo, the couple’s taxi driver, were given reduced sentences in return for their guilty pleas and are now both due to testify against their alleged paymaster. A third man who helped broker the deal, Monde Mbolombo, was granted immunity from prosecution on the same grounds.
Qwabe told the court Tongo confirmed the hit shortly before the shooting by texting him that “the husband wanted the job done that night”.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mziwamadoda Qwabe (AP)
Qwabe and co-convict Xolile Mngeni forced the Dewanis' taxi to a stop at gunpoint as they drove through a Cape township on the way home from dinner on November 13, 2010.
Tongo and Mr Dewani were pushed out of the Volkswagen Sharan one by one as Qwabe drove at “very high speed”, he said. Mrs Dewani was found dead on the back seat of the abandoned car the following morning, with a single gunshot to her neck that had severed her spine.
Qwabe, dressed in a black and fluorescent green Nike top and wearing glasses, was brought into the court flanked by armed prison offers.
As he spoke he was watched intently by Mr Dewani, 34, from the dock. The defendant showed little emotion and made notes in a bulky file on his knee. Having left South Africa before any suspects were arrested or identity parades were conducted, the last time he would have seen Qwabe was on the night of the attack.
Qwabe said he had been contacted the day before the murder by a man he previously worked with as a tour guide on Table Mountain who told him “there was a job that needed to be done”.
He said he told Monde Mbolombo, by then working as a hotel receptionist, to give the person his number. He said he then received a call from Zola Tongo. “He said he had a job to be done, someone needed someone killed, how much would that be,” he told the court. “When Zola phoned I was with my co-accused Xolile Mngeni. I conveyed him the message and he said he would do it for the price of R15,000 (£834).”
The three men met the following day in Tongo’s car at a shopping mall in Khayelitsha township. “Tongo said it was a husband who wanted his wife killed but it had to look like a hijacking," he said.
He was asked by the prosecutor what his understanding of “the job” was as the meeting ended. “That a lady would be killed and we would do it by hijacking. Nothing would happen to the husband or Zola,” Qwabe replied.
The next day, he said, he corresponded with Tongo by text message and arranged that they would attack the car at an intersection in Gugulethu township. He said Tongo later told him in a message he sent as the Dewanis ate a sushi dinner in nearby Somerset West that “the husband wanted the job done that night”.
He said he and Mngeni waited at a designated intersection and when the car approached, forced their way in with Mngeni waving a handgun.
He said he got in to the driver’s seat and Mngeni sat in the passenger seat facing the Dewanis in the back. "He said keep quiet, not to try anything, things like that," he said.
He said as Tongo got out of the car, he told him in the Xhosa language that the agreed payment was in the pocket behind the front passenger seat. Asked if the money was the agreed amount, he said they found R10,000 and he complained to Mbolombo the next day that “the money was short”.
Qwabe said he didn’t recall the reaction of Mr Dewani to being forced out of the car. He said he was busy looking at the road, but remembered "resistance".
When he heard a shot, he said, he pulled over. Before they abandoned the car with Mrs Dewani’s body, he searched for and found the spent bullet casing.
Adrian Mopp, the prosecutor, asked him: “Did you see if she was alive or dead?" Mrs Dewani’s family craned forward to hear his response. "I didn't take much notice," he said.
Qwabe, 29, was handed a 25-year prison sentence, cut from life, in August 2012 after he pleaded guilty to involvement in the case. Tongo was given an 18-year sentence, while Mombolbo was granted immunity from prosecution in return for giving evidence.
The case continues.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/11147894/Shrien-Dewani-trial-for-honeymoon-murder-latest.html

[puglove]

The day after Anni's murder, Dewani was looking at gay websites......

[Anna]

The day after Anni's murder, Dewani was looking at gay websites......

Really? I didnt read that.
I think he would have felt rather trapped in this marraige if he was more inclined towards the male sex.

[colombosstogey]

Yes.... another poor girl dead at the hands of evil. He has had plenty of time for rehearsal though.
 Why do they give them so much time, excuses, excuses, before going to court? It baffles me.
Her family are suffering the same as Reeva's. Very sad.
This world of easy killing, is getting worse by the minute and the courts are not helping it, one bit.

Totally agree Anna.

I wonder if they dealt with him with kid gloves for fear of racist comment. If they hounded him then the race card can be deployed. I wonder if it was just a white chav in same circumstances would not have been thrown back to the lions literally. Sorry i feel sad even writing this, but i cant for the life of me think why he wasnt sent back straight away.

All this phaffing about mental health issues. ANYONE can fake that and there are some very gullible people out there who can be hoodwinked....

I am truly hoping he doesnt get away with it. Reeva well sadly she was let down. Anyone with half a brain knows what happened there.

I give up sometimes to be honest. I actually sort of dont watch the news anymore because it is far tooo depressing. x

[Anna]

Totally agree Anna.

I wonder if they dealt with him with kid gloves for fear of racist comment. If they hounded him then the race card can be deployed. I wonder if it was just a white chav in same circumstances would not have been thrown back to the lions literally. Sorry i feel sad even writing this, but i cant for the life of me think why he wasnt sent back straight away.

All this phaffing about mental health issues. ANYONE can fake that and there are some very gullible people out there who can be hoodwinked....

I am truly hoping he doesnt get away with it. Reeva well sadly she was let down. Anyone with half a brain knows what happened there.

I give up sometimes to be honest. I actually sort of dont watch the news anymore because it is far tooo depressing. x

I dont watch the news on a regular basis either....Too depressing, upsetting and unbelievale at times, what people will do to others. Disasters upset me terribly too.
 Guess I am a bit of a softie or wimp.
However the innocent need protection from the evil forces around us and swift justice for the crimes commited against them. Why should a criminal have time to reflect, when his victim does not