Pretoria - The parents of murdered Bond University student Leigh Matthews yesterday, for the second time, came face to face with their daughter’s killer as they attended Donovan Moodley’s parole hearing.
Rob Matthews told the Pretoria News before the hearing that he was apprehensive about the hearing, but he and his wife Sharon were there to voice their opposition to Moodley being released on parole.
This is the second time the parents have faced their daughter’s killer. The previous time was also during his parole bid, which failed. Rob said facing Moodley was chilling for his wife.
He expressed the hope that Moodley would not be released. “Let’s hope that the earlier decision (in refusing parole) stands,” Rob said.
He said he does not believe Moodley has remorse for what he had done, or has spoken the truth about Leigh’s murder.
“We don’t know what exactly happened. But he is not telling the truth, as someone else was also involved. Even the courts found this. Who is he protecting?”
Rob said for the family to be able to find closure, they must know the truth. He said he could not express on an expert level whether Moodley was ready for the outside word.
“We are just parents who are still grieving our daughter.”
Women and Men Against Child Abuse, meanwhile, said they were deeply concerned that Moodley might be released on parole. The organisation said it had experiences of parole being granted where there was no evidence of either remorse or rehabilitation.
The organisation, which also previously attended the parole hearing in support of the family, said the process was very distressing for the family.
Rob agreed it was emotionally draining that Moodley wanted to get out of prison.
Moodley last week turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, in a bid to stop his parole hearing from going ahead yesterday. He said the Department of Justice and Correctional Services did not supply him with the documentation it aimed to use during his parole hearing.
Moodley feared he could be ambushed during the hearing as the department might present reports which he had not seen or studied.
This included, according to him, the latest social worker’s report and latest inputs from the police and Matthews’ family.
Moodley argued that the department was in contempt of an earlier court order, which, he claimed, stipulated that he have all the relevant documentation on which the parole hearing was going to rely, by the end of last month.
He said he had been given none of these documents. But the court ordered the hearing must go ahead and said it was confident the department did supply Moodley with the documents earlier and this time around there were probably no new documents.
The court expressed its belief that Moodley would be treated fairly.
The parole panel first has to deliberate before informing Moodley whether his parole application has been successful or not.
Moodley is expecting to be released on parole after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005 for the gruesome killing of Matthews and the extortion of her parents.
He pleaded guilty to the charges.
Pretoria News