Moodley vows to prove he ‘didn’t do deed’

SANDRA LIEBERUM

JOHANNESBURG - Family and friends of murdered tertiary student Leigh Matthews are happy with the dismissal of convicted killer Donovan Moodley’s late application for leave to appeal.

Moodley, however, has vowed to continue his fight “right through the justice system” for as long as it takes.

Immediately after the dismissal of the four-leg application, Moodley instructed his legal aid lawyer, Advocate Charles Thompson, to petition the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal against the sentence and for the noting of “a special entry”, claiming that there were conflicting facts in his guilty plea.

Moodley wants his premeditated murder count sentence of life imprisonment, altered to 15 years (of which he has served four) on the grounds that Leigh Matthews’s murder was unplanned. This information was contained in a letter Moodley had given to the media.

The letter was yesterday confiscated by a prison escort and handed to police Director Piet Byleveld, who was the arresting officer.

Director Byleveld later confirmed to The Citizen that Moodley vowed to “prove he didn’t do the deed” to which he had pleaded guilty.

Other than expressing his determination to take on the legal system, there were “no significant new revelations” added Director Byleveld.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said it was sad that “old wounds had been reopened for the Matthews family”.