The chilling words: “It became a kidnapping and a murder instead of just making it a robbery outside the house,” drew gasps from the gallery in the Port Elizabeth High Court.
The video, which Panayiotou’s lawyers spent months trying to have ruled inadmissible, has now gone viral on social media, with it being viewed and shared thousands of times on HeraldLIVE’s website.
The impact that the short black and white clip, filmed in an undercover police vehicle, has on the case became clear in the lengthy trial-within-a-trial.
The state and defence spent months fighting tooth and nail for and against the video ever seeing the light of day.
On Monday, Judge Dayalin Chetty found the sting recording to be admissible. He reserved his reasons for his ruling until the finalisation of the case.
