‘It looks like a hit now’: Panayiotou discusses murder in shocking video

“I am going to be okay as long as they never know about us ... I’ll sort out your family; you hide low, okay? You need to be gone for a few months till this thing calms down.”

This was one of the conversations captured in a covertly recorded video in which businessman Christopher Panayiotou is talking to alleged murder middleman Luthando Siyoni, days after the killing of Panayiotou’s wife, Jayde.

The video was viewed in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday after being declared admissible by Judge Dayalin Chetty.

It was filmed in a bugged car at a garage near a fastfood restaurant on April 29 2015. It showed Panayiotou in a panic as he explained how the killers of his wife had botched the murder.

The words: “They were supposed to make it look like a robbery” drew gasps from the public gallery.

In the video, Panayiotou is heard saying: “I told you to let them do it outside the house and take the bags and the rings, and then they didn’t take the watch or anything.

“They just left everything there, you see, so it looks like a hit now. So they are after me, and that’s why I can’t just meet you in front of people like this, Thando.”

In the recording, Panayiotou is heard telling Siyoni not to phone him again before handing him about R5 000 in cash. Panayiotou then tells Siyoni to destroy his cellphone and SIM card. He turns around and apparently searches Siyoni for a hidden microphone.

“I am all out now. This thing has cost me a lot of money. The family is also looking at me,” Panayiotou said on the video recording.

As the video played in the high court, Panayiotou watched on the big screen intently.The expressions of his family, seated in the front row of the public gallery, were unreadable.

Jayde’s younger sister, Toni Inggs, said outside court: “We are just relieved that the footage has finally been viewed. We believe this is in the interests of justice.”

Siyoli was arrested immediately after the murder, Panayiotou much later.

Siyoli supplied detectives with a step-by-step account of events, which led to Panayiotou’s arrest. Jayde’s abduction and murder had been intended to appear as a botched robbery while she was waiting for a lift-club member to take her to work, the state believes.

Her body was found the next day on a farm in Uitenhage. She had been shot three times.A transcript of the conversations captured on the video was given to the court in May 2015 but there has been a trial-within-a-trial to establish whether the video is admissible as evidence.

The state and the defence spent several weeks arguing opposing positions. The defence claimed that Siyoni had been tortured by the police and forced to get his former boss to incriminate himself.

In September, alleged gunman Sizwezakhe Vumazonke lapsed into a coma and died in prison.

Jayde’s final moments were recalled in court between October and December.

A blunt-force injury to the back of her head was consistent with her being pistol-whipped. She was then bundled into the boot of a rental car. She was shot in the back and paralysed before the fatal shots were fired. The indictment details how Jayde’s movements were tracked and refers to at least three failed attempts to kill her.

— Additional editing by TimesLIVE