PORT ELIZABETH, October 17 (ANA) – Murder accused Christopher Panayiotou’s mistress Chanelle Coutts was at the Port Elizabeth High Court again on Tuesday, seemingly to support her lover.
On Monday, Coutts testified as a defence witness and at every opportunity avoided being photographed. On Tuesday, however, Coutts walked confidently with the Panayiotou family who came up to court from the holding cells.
Holding her head up high, Coutts, 29, who worked as a manager at the Panayiotou’s OK Grocer, sat with Panayiotou’s mother, Fanoula, in the front seat of the court’s public gallery.
Jayde’s mother, Michelle Inggs was visibly upset by Coutts’s presence and left court in tears.
In her testimony on Monday Coutts claimed that she had no knowledge of events that led up to the school teacher’s murder.
She admitted to sleeping over at Jayde’s house when the teacher was away from home.
She told the court that from the start of the murder investigation, she and Christopher had decided to be honest about their affair.
Coutts said she had “no idea” as to how the State got information on the alleged motive for Jayde’s murder.
The State alleges that Panayiotou had his wife killed in April 2015 because she was a financial burden.
Coutts could not give any explanation on cellphone data evidence showing that her number and a number of a potential hitman had communicated at least 17 times during September 2014.
She simply said that she had no idea who Trompie was.
Panayiotou, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko are on trial for for conspiring to kidnap, rob and murder Jayde on April 21, 2015.
The case continues on Tuesday afternoon.
-African News Agency (ANA)
