'Stronger than ever", "not afraid to stand alone", "a media favourite" - these are the terms killer Donovan Moodley has used to describe himself in a public pledge to continue his fight for freedom.
"Arrogant", "contemptuous" and "evil to the core" were the contrasting terms used by the family and supporters of his victim, Leigh Matthews, when they spoke about him.
Moodley, who has spent five years behind bars for kidnapping and murdering the blonde student, yesterday made what may have been his last public appearance in court as he lost the application for leave to appeal against his sentence lodged with the Johannesburg High Court.
He also used the opportunity to make a media statement, saying: "Five years on I am still a media favourite. A country sickened by crime must choose an official face for crime and a mascot for evil. Is that me?"
The statement, written in neat capital letters, was passed to a journalist as he made his way back to the holding cells.
"I want to make this clear. I will stop at nothing, leaving no means untried. It is my right to persue (sic) justice," it read.
In the statement, Moodley continued to question how "a judge can say in open court that a confession is not candit (sic), a public prosecutor can say in open court, the truth must still be told; an investigating officer can string the whole country along as he is always on the brink of solving the case; a confession of the accused can be materially impossible and contradict obvious facts; but a man can serve a life sentence for the same unsolved riddle".
Moodley said this was his first media statement, but in 2004 he wrote a poem that was also given to the media, in which he called journalists "maggots and vipers", adding that a time would come "upon which I will crush your heads under my heel".
Moodley yesterday showed no emotion as Judge Joop Labuschagne ruled against every one of the applications before him.
But he was "extremely disappointed" by the ruling, according to his legal counsel, advocate Charles Thompson.
Moodley had asked that the court firstly overlook the fact that his application came four years after the appeal deadline had passed, and then argued that Judge Labuschagne had "misdirected himself in finding that life imprisonment was the appropriate sentence in the circumstances, and thereby imposed a sentence that is shockingly inappropriate in the circumstances".
During his trial in 2005, Moodley confessed to having kidnapped Leigh, taken R50 000 ransom money from her father and then shot her dead.
Judge Labuschagne found him guilty, but ruled that he had not acted alone and that the state had proved that Leigh's body had been kept in cold storage and later placed on a staged crime scene. Moodley has admitted to none of this.
The retired judge, who agreed to come back for this hearing, ruled that Moodley's reasons for filing his application four years late were "extremely meagre and totally unsatisfactory".
Explaining that he had carefully reconsidered his judgment and the life sentence handed down to Moodley, Judge Labuschagne said he believed he had not misdirected himself in any way, nor had the sentence been "grossly excessive".
Thompson had also asked for a special entry to be noted.
Judge Labuschagne ruled against this too, stating: "I am of the view that the application is frivolous, and granting it would be an abuse of the process of court and would lead to an appeal where there is no prospect of success".
Leigh's father Rob was pleased with the ruling.
"He's (Moodley) contemptuous and it's the way he deals in life. It is why he is so dangerous and why he should be made to spend the rest of his life in jail," he said.
Once Judge Labuschagne dismissed all of Moodley's applications, Thompson quickly asked for the judgment to be transcribed to enable him to file a new application to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Responding to the statement, Rob Matthews said he was "completely flabbergasted" by the contents of the letter.
"It's hard to try and believe the kind of world he's living in. A world of lies and denials...
"And I look forward to the day when the rest of his accomplices are brought to book."
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on November 26, 2009
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