- Murdered Anni Dewani 'sent text about honeymoon sex sessions to cousin'
- Police claim Shrien Dewani is gay and organised killing to escape marriage
- One message from victim to cousin states: 'Last night we had it five times'
- The texts have come to light after officers cracked Mrs Dewani's phone
Mr Dewani, 34, from Bristol, was last week extradited to South Africa to face trial for the murder of his wife Anni Dewani, 28, who died when she was shot in the neck as the couple travelled in a taxi on the outskirts of Cape Town while on their honeymoon in November 2010.
Taxi driver Zola Tongo, who testified that Dewani set up the killing, was jailed along with two gunmen.
Revelation: Dewani
is pictured with his wife, Anni. South African police say he ordered
the killing as he was gay and wanted out of the marriage, but a text
from the victim about their sex life may cripple that argument
Shrien Dewani arrives at the airport in Cape
Town after his extradition from Britain last week. He has been sent to a
psychiatric hospital until next month after a brief court South African
appearance in which he was formally charged with murdering his wife
South African authorities believe millionaire Mr Dewani is secretly gay and wanted to get out of the marriage.
But the text, to Mrs Dewani's cousin Sneha Hindocha, reportedly said: 'Last night we had it five times', to which Ms Hindocha, 30, replied: 'I've never had it five times in one night.'
Mrs Dewani's phone was taken by killer Xolile Mngeni during the carjacking, during which Dewani said he was thrown out of the taxi.
The police have only just seen the text after hacking into the Blackberry - a notoriously hard model to crack.
Previously, a 40-year-old male prostitute based in Birmingham told police he met Dewani for sex sessions after the relationship with Anni had begun.
Shrien Dewani leaves with a police escort from Western Cape High Court in Cape Town
The 34-year-old was brought to Western Cape High
Court in Cape Town in a police convoy after he was extradited from
Britain last week at the end of a long legal battle
Munich-born
Leopold Leisser, known as the 'German Master', told police that Dewani –
whom he photographed during one of their meetings – told him that he
was engaged.'He said that she was a nice, lovely girl, and that he liked her, but that he could not break out of it in any way because he would be disowned by the family,' he said.
But a source told the Sunday Mirror: 'Police have always said the motive for Dewani was he wanted to get out of the marriage without admitting he is gay.
'The fact Anni told her cousin they were having sex regularly severely damages that argument.'
Mrs Dewani sent the text to her cousin Sneha Hindocha (left)
Dewani fought a long legal battle against extradition to South Africa to face a conspiracy to murder charge.
He lost and now his lawyers, citing his mental health, have appealed to the Supreme Court.
Dewani, a care home owner, has always denied ordering the killing of Anni. He has always denied being gay and says he can prove he was elsewhere on the dates Leisser said they met.
Anni's father Vinod Hindocha, 64, and Sneha have previously spoken of their misgivings about the relationship even before the couple had their lavish £200,000 wedding in a Mumbai hotel.
Shrien Dewani's father and other family members arrive at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town
Anni's
father told police that she wanted to end the engagement and walked out
on her husband-to-be. Mr Hindocha said that Anni became convinced that
Dewani would change and told her father: 'Papa, he's like a Hitler -
but don't worry - I will get married.' Over a period of four months before the murder, 28-year-old Anni sent a sequence of messages to her cousin Sneha in Britain and they show the young bride had deep-seated reservations about Dewani.
In one despairing message five weeks before the wedding, Anni tells Sneha: 'I don't want to marry him... I'm going to be unhappy for the rest of my life... one cannot even hug him... we have nothing in common.'
Claims: Prosecutors claim Dewani hired a hitman to kill his wife, which Dewani has consistently denied
CCTV: Footage taken from the couple's honeymoon
hotel in South Africa shows the final hours of Anni Dewani who was
murdered in 2010
And three days before her death, she messaged Sneha: 'I don't feel happy at all.' Sneha has told police that Anni called off the engagement and marriage at least three times, only for Shrien to change her mind each time.
When the texts are taken alongside statements from other witnesses, the police files depict a marriage that was doomed before it began.
Xolile Mngeni, who prosecutors claim was the hitman, was convicted of premeditated murder over the shooting, and another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, pleaded guilty to murder and was handed a 25-year prison sentence.
Murdered: Anni Dewani was 28 when she was murdered in a remote suburb of Cape Town
Anger: Vinod Hindocha (right), the father of
murdered bride Anni Dewani, said he
had always questioned how genuine his son-in-law's mental illness could
have been
Guilty: Taxi driver Zola Tongo (pictured) was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the killing
TIMELINE: MURDER OF ANNI DEWANI AND THE PURSUIT OF HER HUSBAND
2010
- November 13 - Shrien and Anni Dewani's cab is hijacked as their chauffeur drives them through the rough township of Gugulethu on the outskirts of Cape Town on their honeymoon. Dewani escapes but his wife is driven off and killed. Her body is found the next morning in the back of the abandoned vehicle. A subsequent post-mortem examination finds she was shot in the neck.
- November 16 - Dewani leaves South Africa. Xolile Mngeni, from the township of Khayelitsha, is arrested by Western Cape Police.
- November 17 - Mngeni is charged with the hijacking and murder.
- November 18 - Police arrest a second suspect, Mzwamadoda Qwabe, also from Khayelitsha.
- November 20 - Police arrest a third suspect, the couple's taxi driver Zola Tongo, from Cape Town.
- December 7 - Tongo is jailed for 18 years after making a plea agreement with prosecutors. The taxi driver claims Dewani offered him 15,000 rand (£1,300) to have his wife killed - something strongly denied by the British businessman's family. Dewani is arrested in Bristol under a South African warrant on suspicion of conspiring to murder his wife.
- December 8 - Dewani appears at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and is remanded in custody as the South African authorities fight to extradite him.
- March 3 - Dewani, who is said to be suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, is sent to the Priory Hospital in Bristol.
- April 20 - Dewani is compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act at Fromeside Clinic, a secure hospital in Bristol.
- May 3-5 - Dewani's extradition hearing begins at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London. Prosecutors cite an unnamed witness who claims Dewani confessed he needed to 'find a way out of' his marriage months before the wedding.
- August 10 - District Judge Howard Riddle rules that Dewani can be extradited to South Africa to stand trial.
- September 28 - Home Secretary Theresa May signs an order for Dewani to be extradited to South Africa.
- September 30 - Dewani lodges a High Court appeal against Mrs May's decision.
- February 10 - The Western Cape High Court in South Africa hears that Dewani is to be added as the fourth accused when the murder trial eventually gets under way.
- March 30 - The High Court temporarily halts Dewani's extradition, ruling that it would be 'unjust and oppressive' to order his removal. But the court said it was plainly in the interests of justice that he should be extradited 'as soon as he is fit' to be tried.
- August 8 - South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority announces that Qwabe has pleaded guilty to murdering Mrs Dewani along with charges of kidnapping, robbery and the illegal possession of a firearm. He is jailed for 25 years.
- In a statement as part of his plea deal, Qwabe said that after he and Mngeni staged the fake hijacking, he drove the car as Mngeni kept a pistol pointed at Mrs Dewani in the back seat before shooting her.
- November 19 - Mngeni is found guilty of premeditated murder at the Western Cape High Court. He is also convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. But he is acquitted of Mrs Dewani's kidnapping.
- December 3 - Dewani is allowed to switch from Fromeside to Blaise View mental health hospital in Bristol, described as a more 'open, relaxed and calm environment', after a court hears he is a 'husk' of his former self and 'adapted poorly' to treatment.
- December 5 - Xolile Mngeni is jailed for life for shooting Mrs Dewani.
- February 13 - Dewani is admitted to hospital suffering chest pains, his family say.
- April 11 - Dewani's mental health is said to have improved 'significantly,' a court hears.
- May 15 - His QC Clare Montgomery tells another court update that his mental health has deteriorated.
- July 1 - The full extradition hearing begins at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
- July 24 - Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle rules Dewani should be extradited to South Africa
- October 22 - Dewani wins a further hearing in his legal battle against extradition on a point of law
- January 31 - Dewani loses his final High Court challenge to avoid extradition
- April 7 - The murder suspect is flown from London's Heathrow Airport to Cape Town
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