Wife-killer Christopher Panayiotou wrapped up his evidence for the State against his former employee and self-confessed middleman Luthando Siyoni in the PE High Court on Monday.
Panayiotou, who is serving a life sentence at St Albans Maximum prison, spoke softly in court and struggled to utter the words that he planned to kill his wife Jayde and instead kept referring to it as the so-called plan.
There were gasps in court when Panayiotou, moments after wrapping up his testimony, asked the family for forgiveness.
However, Panayiotou was facing the Judge with his back to the gallery when he said he was deeply, deeply sorry for what he had done and for the hurt he caused to so many people.
He added, to a stunned and silent courtroom, that he did not expect any forgiveness.
Earlier in his testimony, Panayiotou recalled the day of Jayde's murder and how the so-called plan to take her life had been put in motion eight months prior to her death.
He told the court that his only role was to pay the R80 000 for the hit on Jayde and that he later paid another R6 000 for the rental car used to abduct his wife.
Panayiotou testified that he did not know that Jayde would be killed on the 21st of April 2015 and that he only realised later that the plan had been executed but had gone horribly wrong.
He had instructed Siyoni to ensure that Jayde was killed outside their complex in Stella Glen in Kabega Park and that it had to look like a robbery.
Panayiotou added that he had no idea that Siyoni had been arrested because he kept calling him asking for a meeting.
That request for a meeting resulted in them coming face to face in a car where police set up a sting which ultimately sent him to prison for life.
He told the court that he gave Siyoni money in the car so that he could get out of town until the heat died down.
Panayiotou added that everything he had said on that sting video was the true version of events and had not been altered in any way.
The matter was postponed to Tuesday morning when Siyoni's defence advocate Siphokazi Cubungu is expected to cross-examine the witness.
