Panayiotou found 'guilty, guilty, guilty'

Christopher Panayiotou could go to prison for the rest of his life - a realisation that quickly sank in on Thursday when Judge Dayalin Chetty found him guilty of masterminding his wife's murder.

"Guilty, guilty, guilty," the words Jayde Panayiotou's family had waited so long to hear, echoed across the packed Port Elizabeth High Court, eliciting applause and cheers from the gallery.

Panayiotou's face reddened and his family, seated directly behind him, began to cry.

In a mammoth judgment, which lasted for most of the day, Chetty convicted Panayiotou, 31, of murder, hitman Sinethemba Nemembe of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, and Zolani Sibeko of conspiracy to commit murder.

Panayiotou showed little emotion as the judgment was read out.

Jayde's younger sister, Toni Inggs, said her family was elated by the outcome.

"My sister can finally rest and we truly hope that they get the time they deserve with sentencing.

"Nothing will bring Jayde back or take away the hurt but, right now, we feel overwhelming joy and appreciation."

Jayde, 29, went missing from outside her Kabega Park home, Port Elizabeth, on April 21 2015.

Her body was found in the large township of KwaNobuhle the next day.

Chetty said an inference could properly be made, from gun residue found on her hand, that in her final moments she had begged for mercy.

"That act of supplication, however, elicited a bullet to her head. The medical and ballistic findings compel the conclusion that this was an execution-style murder."

The breakthrough in unmasking the key figures in her murder came on April 27, when Captain Willie Mayi, the head of a police vehicle hijacking team, received a call from an informer.

The meeting eventually led him to middleman Luthando Siyoni.

Turning to the sting video in which Panayiotou and Siyoni discussed Jayde's murder, Chetty said the police's conduct had not extended to providing an opportunity for Panayiotou to commit an offence.

The video started with Panayiotou removing a battery and SIM card from a cellphone.

He asked Siyoni : "Did these guys blit [talk]?"

Siyoni said: "Sizwe [Sizwezakhe, the alleged hitman, now dead] is on the run".

The chilling words: "It became a kidnapping and a murder instead of just making it a robbery outside the house", drew gasps from the gallery when the clip was shown.

The judge concluded: "It is clear the evidence procured [in the car] established Panayiotou's complicity in Jayde's murder."