The family of murdered university student, Leigh Matthews says they do not accept her killer Donovan Moodley’s fresh apology. The Matthews family was back to face their daughter’s murderer. They still believe Moodley has shown no remorse and they continue to plead that he should not be set free.
In 2004, Moodely abducted Leigh Matthews from Bond University in Sandton. He then demanded ransom from her family and after receiving R50 000 from the father, he shot Matthews three times. A year later, he pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping, and extortion.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 15 years for kidnapping, and 10 years for extortion. He has approached the parole board in a bid to be set free.
“For us, it just doesn’t sound right. If you take a life, there should be consequences for that. If there’s rehabilitation which is possible, but what we have seen doesn’t seem to have been rehabilitation. I mean there have been four court cases and that does not show remorse,” Leigh Matthews’s father, Rob says.
‘Not remorseful’
Civil society organisation, Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) says the parole board needs to be more victim-centric when considering parole applications.
In January last year, he was denied parole but managed to have that decision set aside by the Gauteng High Court. The court ordered the parole board to hold a new hearing for Moodley by no later than 31 March.
WMACA’s Miranda Jordan says they do not believe that Moodley has been rehabilitated.
“Here we are again, just over a year, re-traumatising Leigh Matthews’ parents, who’ve had to through the whole process again and we know from the previous one, he did not disclose everything, he did not give them the answers that they have been looking for. What we are really looking at here, is we are looking at a very un-victim-centric approach by the parole process and we are hoping that the parole board chairman and the parole board will see that Donovan Moodley is in no way remorseful,” says Jordan.
VIDEO: Women and Men Against Child Abuse concerned about case against Donovan Moodley:
A few days ago, Moodley tried to have this parole hearing interdicted, saying he was not provided with all the documents which will be placed before the board, but he did not succeed.
The parole board will review all the information and make a recommendation to the National Council for Correctional Services. The Council will then make its own recommendation based on the information before it, and send that to the Justice and Correctional Services Minister, who will make the final decision.
VIDEO: Parole hearing of Donovan Moodley to be heard at Johannesburg prison today
