‘Fake remorse’ of a killer

Leigh Matthews’s mom rejects Moodley’s apology

● Leigh Matthews’s mother Sharon broke down in tears on Friday when her daughter’s murderer, Donovan Moodley, told her that when he obtained a law degree in jail he felt sad Leigh had died before she, too, could graduate.

“He said he was sorry, but it wasn’t real,” Sharon said. “It was a narcissistic psychopath reading from a script he wrote to show remorse.”

Sharon and her husband Rob spent almost eight hours in the presence of their daughter’s killer during a gruelling parole hearing at the Johannesburg Medium B prison on Friday.

They submitted a 131-page report to the board and argued that Moodley’s release was not in the interests of society, that he was a danger to the community and that his freedom would cause them deeper suffering.

Leigh’s sister Karen described how her six-year-old would ask: “Where is Auntie Leigh and how did she die?”

To their great relief, the parole board decided: “It will be an insult to justice if Donovan Moodley were to be granted parole.”

Moodley arrived at the hearing with his guitar case and a pile of paperwork, with no family support evident.

“When I saw him, I felt terrible,” Rob told the Sunday Times. “It was like Leigh’s funeral all over again.”

He and Sharon had been hoping they would find a genuinely remorseful Moodley who was ready to give them answers to the questions that still haunt them, but they were quickly disappointed. Moodley stuck to a version long proven to be lies.

He kidnapped Leigh, 21 at the time, on July 9 2004 as she left Bond University in Sandton where she was studying. He demanded a ransom from her family and Rob dropped off R50,000 as instructed that evening.

According to one of Moodley’s versions, after taking the money he made Leigh undress and cover herself with a blanket. When she turned away he shot her four times, including one shot to the head.

He left her body where it was eventually found, in the veld in Walkerville, about 30km south of Johannesburg.

But the full truth has never emerged. Moodley has given several versions — all proven false during his trial. The judge, Joop Labuschagne, found that Moodley had not been candid and that he had not acted alone.

“He told another story when I asked him where he kept Leigh’s body,” her father told the Sunday Times after Friday’s hearing.

“He said he laid her out on a cement slab near a lake, and because it was so cold at that time, her body froze. Then he moved her to where we would find her. But it has been proven [in court] that her body could not have been in the open, and she was kept under a blanket in cold storage somewhere else.”

Leigh was missing for 11 days before her frozen body was found, the four spent cartridges neatly arranged close by.

The report submitted to the parole board by Leigh’s parents details how it was revealed during the trial that in the more than two months before he was arrested, Moodley lived the high life.

Phone records placed him at Montecasino at the time Leigh’s body was found. He splurged the ransom and paid for the repair of his Ducati motorcycle. He got engaged to his girlfriend, bought her a ring and took her on a cruise. He bought designer shoes and frequently ate out.

The good times for Moodley ended on October 4 that year when investigating officer Piet Byleveld arrested him.

A year later Moodley pleaded guilty to murder. After a two-day trial, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder, 15 years for kidnapping and 10 years for extortion.

Moodley began studying for a law degree from Unisa and in 2009 he started writing to friends and relatives to ask for money. He complained about prison life and said his family were struggling financially.

He asked for not just a one-off donation, but a “long-term commitment” of a monthly payment. He said he felt embarrassed for asking, but had little choice because prison was expensive. Rob and Sharon received one of these letters, which they included in their submission.

“He studied law for the purpose of aiding his own legal challenges and, on average, every second year or so he would appeal his sentence,” they said.

During one such application, Moodley claimed that he had in fact been a kidnap victim along with Leigh. Three men had abducted them both, then murdered Leigh, he said. The men forced him to make a false confession by threatening to kill his family. This version was dismissed by the Constitutional Court.

Leigh’s parents cited two “suicide notes” Moodley wrote to his girlfriend and his parents, in which he appears to take responsibility for the murder.

Moodley, who submitted the letters in an earlier court application to illustrate his mental anguish, said in part: “Sorry that my sin has done this to you,” “I can’t understand that God would put you with a rotten person like me,” “I don’t want to have to burden you for the next 30 years in jail,” and “The wages for a sin like mine is death.”