- .Exclusive pictures of the couple the night before Anni was shot
- .Text messages to cousin reveal the tortured thoughts of the 28-year-old
- .'I don't want to marry him. I'm going to be unhappy for the rest of my life'
- .Anni went through with the wedding despite grave reservations
- .Her grandmother begged her father to make her go through with it
A series of anguished text messages from honeymoon murder victim Anni Dewani – revealed for the first time today – show how desperate she was to escape her troubled relationship with the man accused of murdering her.
The dramatic texts, contained in a South African police file, are the first evidence to emerge of Anni’s intimate feelings about her husband since her death in 2010 during a car-jacking in a crime-ridden Cape Town slum.
Over a period of four months before the murder, 28-year-old Anni sent a sequence of messages to her cousin Sneha in Britain.
Bizarre: These exclusive pictures show the moment Dewani appears to make a gun gesture at his wife
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.'
In another text, Anni wrote: ‘Want to cry myself to death.’
Yet another read: ‘Crying every day.’ A month before the wedding she texted: ‘Hate him.’
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.
Some of the most disturbing evidence in the files comes from a 40-year-old male prostitute based in Birmingham, who told police he met Dewani for sex sessions after the relationship with Anni had begun.
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.'
CCTV footage showing Anni accompanying Shrien Dewani out for a meal on her last night alive
The CCTV footage was taken on the Friday, the day before she was shot. Dewani raises two fingers of each hand in what looks like an imitation of a handgun
CCTV footage shows Shrien Dewani being led away by officers just after being told that his wife has been found dead
Hiding her pain: This picture of Anni and Dewani was taken just four days before she was shot dead
In addition to Anni’s distressing texts, previously unseen CCTV footage of the couple around the time of the killing has been uncovered in a joint investigation between The Mail on Sunday and BBC’s, Panorama and is likely to play a key role in any court case in South Africa.
In one startling image, taken just 24 hours before the killing, Dewani is seen making an unfortunate gesture which could be misconstrued as mimicking a gun.
And just a day after the murder, he is seen apparently smiling during a phone call to relatives.
Swedish-born Anni was kidnapped and shot dead in November 2010 while on a fairytale honeymoon with millionaire Dewani, 33, from Bristol.
Taxi driver Zola Tongo, who testified that Dewani set up the killing, was jailed along with two gunmen.
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.
Anni’s father Vinod Hindocha, 64, and Sneha, 30, had misgivings about the relationship even before the lavish £200,000 wedding in a Mumbai hotel.
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.’
Doomed: They smiled for the cameras on their wedding day, but their relationship was already on the rocks
Sneha told police that Anni’s doubts about Dewani first emerged in 2009, a year before the wedding.
‘Anni told me that she had tried to be intimate but Dewani had pushed her away,’ her statement says.
‘She felt embarrassed and hurt by Dewani’s reaction and we both felt it was weird.’
The same thing happened a couple of weeks later.
‘I remember that Anni and I speculated that maybe he was a virgin or perhaps just being proper and not wanting to be intimate before marriage.’
Sneha said Dewani told Anni that his behaviour was due to hormone treatment for infertility.
Her reaction was immediate: ‘Anni broke off the relationship because she wanted to have children in the future,’ said Sneha.
Two months later, Dewani claimed the treatment was working and he could now have sex and father children, persuading her to rekindle the relationship.
Confidant: Anni sent a series of text messages to her cousin Sneha in the lead up to the wedding
But doubts remained. ‘Anni told me she was not comfortable with Dewani and that they fought and argued a lot,’ Sneha told police. ‘These trivial arguments were continuous.’
In May 2010, shortly before their engagement that month, Anni emailed Dewani again, calling it off, but he promised to ‘change his ways’ and it went ahead.
Anni’s texts to Sneha, translated from Swedish, begin in August 2010 when Anni was visiting Shrien’s family:
August 5, 2010: ‘Miss you so much. Don’t want to be with these people. I don’t know what to do. I’m much more comfortable alone. I hate them. Want to cry myself to death.’
August 25: ‘Feels very empty without you. Can’t understand why I’m crying all the time.’
By September matters had reached a head while Anni was in India for wedding preparations:
Honeymoon: The couple went to South Africa to celebrate their wedding, but it ended in horror
September 3: ‘Crying every day. My clothes catastrophic and so much to do that I can’t cope. I feel abandoned by everybody.’
September 16: ‘Fighting a lot with Shrien. Told him I’m going home. Wish I never got engaged.
Everyone tells me how fortunate I am – even my designer tells me that he’s good-looking and that I am lucky. Absolutely sick. We’re seeing each other for three days and only fight.’
September 21: ‘I don’t want to marry him. I’m going to be unhappy for the rest of my life. If I know [sic] news like this I would not have got engaged.
'Do you think I will be able to find someone else if I break this? Feels bad that everyone has booked their tickets.
'I’m not happy. One cannot even hug him. We have nothing in common. He is putting pressure on everything.
‘He’s a perfectionist. Don’t want to, but I feel sorry for my parents.’
September 22: ‘Told his and my parents I don’t want to get married.’
Mr Hindocha, 64, an electrical contractor, told police he received a tearful call from Dewani’s grandmother Ansyuben in India at this point.
He said: ‘[She] begged me to talk to Anni, stating that she must please not do this as their family reputation would be zero if Anni decided not to go through with the wedding.’
But the worrying texts from Anni to Sneha continue:
September 23: ‘We are going to sort everything out but I still feel the same way. Thank you for your concern. September 23 it is not 100 per cent good yet.’
A week later, Anni makes her feelings plain after another row:
September 30: ‘Hate him. I am not happy.’
Perfectionist: Dewani arriving for a hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, that ended with a ruling he was to be extradited
Sneha told detectives: ‘There was a huge amount of animosity between them which resulted in her throwing her engagement ring at him.
‘She was concerned that Dewani was lying about being unable to have children.
‘She explained her sadness at the fact that they were fighting all the time and that they were not sharing a bed and intimacy as he chose to sleep on the sofa.
‘He promised that he would try his best to change his ways. Anni agreed to go ahead with the wedding.’
During the two-day ceremony in Mumbai in late October, an upset Anni asked her cousin if she looked beautiful.
Sneha told police this was because ‘Dewani’s first words to Anni as she approached him on the red carpet were “your sari is not proper".’
According to Sneha’s police statement, Anni told her that both she and Dewani had agreed to ‘act out the rest of the wedding ceremonies’.
Later, summoned to the honeymoon suite to take clothes to Anni, Sneha was surprised to be asked inside.
‘I asked Anni if they had done it, meaning had sex. Anni replied, “No, what do you think? I told you we were just acting”.
Back in the UK after the wedding, Anni said she had again decided to leave Dewani.
Sneha told police: ‘She did not want to go with Dewani to South Africa or anywhere else as she wanted a divorce.’
Anni’s texts suggest she was no happier once the couple were in Cape Town on honeymoon:
November 10: ‘What shall I do? It’s been one day and I feel exactly the same as I did before.
'I’m really trying. He is a very nice guy in all the ways but I don’t feel happy at all.’
Yet only the next day – two days before her death – Anni appears to have had a complete change of heart, texting: ‘Hello! It’s much better now. How are you?
‘Is going better than before. Hard to explain but I’ll call you soon as I return. Hate the word divorce.’
Two nights later, Anni was shot dead.
Her family told police they noticed strange behaviour from Dewani over the funeral arrangements in the UK.
Mr Hindocha claimed that Dewani refused Anni’s mother any private time with her body and prevented her family placing roses in the casket, saying: ‘I don’t want this coffin to look like a dustbin.’
The Mail on Sunday contacted the South African Police Service and Dewani’s solicitor Andrew Smith but received no response.
Dewani, a care home owner from Bristol, 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.
Expense: The couple went ahead with their £200,000 wedding in Mumbai in 2010
This is how it will happen: hotel worker's phone call to taxi-cab killer
New doubts have been raised about the prosecution case against Shrien Dewani as he battles to avoid extradition to South Africa.
The joint BBC Panorama and Mail on Sunday investigation exposes apparent lies in the evidence of the star prosecution witness in the case, taxi driver Zola Tongo, 32.
He received a reduced sentence of 18 years instead of 25 years in return for his testimony in a plea bargain with prosecutors.
By comparing Tongo’s evidence against new and hitherto unseen CCTV tapes and mobile phone records in the police files, doubts arise over many of his claims to have had conversations or exchanges of texts with Dewani at crucial times.
Tongo claimed in his police statement that on the day of the murder, he was called by Dewani in the morning, but both men’s phone records show no such call took place.
Testimony: Hotel receptionist Monde Mbolombo was given immunity from prosecution, but doubts have emerged
Doubts also surround the claims of Monde Mbolombo, 33, a hotel receptionist who claims to have acted as the ‘middleman’.
He told police he was in Tongo’s taxi when another call came to Tongo from Dewani but, again, phone records show no such call took place.
Hours before the killing, the Dewanis had a drink in the bar of their hotel, the five-star £450-a-night Cape Grace, while waiting for Tongo – who was late – to turn up in his taxi.
Tongo told police that Dewani called him ‘in an agitated state . . . and insisted that the act be perpetrated that very day.’
But CCTV of the call shows that Dewani looked relaxed and, moreover, had Anni sitting right beside him.
Later on the Saturday night after the couple enjoyed a meal at the Surfside restaurant in Cape Town’s Somerset West en route to the Gugulethu township, Tongo claimed to have sent a text to Dewani reminding him about ‘the money’, and to have received one back saying it was in a pouch behind the front passenger’s seat.
Although Tongo did send a text to Dewani, its content cannot be verified. And, crucially, there was no reply from Dewani.
Enhanced audio on the new CCTV tapes suggest that Mbolombo – who was granted complete immunity from prosecution because of his supposedly marginal role – may have played a far more significant part than previously admitted.
Just a few hours before the murder, he is filmed telling Tongo: ‘This is how it’s going to happen. Listen, don’t give them it all up front. Give them what you’ve got on you so they don’t come crying to you.’
And later he tells Tongo: ‘You must take your share as well.’
The BBC employed special techniques to enhance the audio, and it is not known whether detectives have ever heard Mbolombo’s words.
Meanwhile, British forensic experts who examined the South African police evidence file concluded that Anni Dewani was probably killed by accident during a struggle.
Their findings made it more likely Anni’s death was robbery gone wrong than a cold-blooded execution.
A single bullet passed through her left hand and into her neck severing major arteries and entering the spinal cord.
A soot deposit on the back of her left hand suggests that the gun was fired just two inches from her hand, supporting the statement of one of the gunmen Xolile Mngeni, 25 – the only one who did not have a plea bargain deal – that his accomplice Mziwamadoda Qwabe fired the fatal shot during a struggle for Anni’s handbag.
Anni’s uncle Ashok Hindocha yesterday criticised the BBC investigation, saying: ‘The trial should not be conducted in a TV studio, it should be in the courts.’
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