- British millionaire denies plotting to kill his wife Anni Dewani four years ago
- Tells court he is bisexual and had 'sexual relations' with male prostitutes
- He and Mrs Dewani argued over the planning of their £200,000 wedding
- She had wanted to call it off, claiming he was 'too controlling', trial hears
- He had fertility problems which meant chance of having children were slim
- Families gasp as court is shown video of Mrs Dewani's dead body in taxi
- She was found in the abandoned car with single bullet wound to the neck
- Mrs Dewani's family sitting just feet away from him in the Cape Town court
- Dewani is accused of paying hitman to kill her days after lavish wedding
British millionaire Shrien Dewani today admitted to being bisexual and using male prostitutes as he formally pleaded not guilty to the honeymoon murder of his wife Anni.
Dewani, 34, denies plotting to kill his new bride on their luxury getaway to Cape Town four years ago days after their lavish wedding.
Mrs Dewani's family sat just feet away from the dock as the wealthy care home owner denied a string of charges including murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice.
His lawyer went on to read a lengthy statement in which Dewani admitted to being bisexual and having liaisons with male prostitutes including a German man called Leopold Leisser.
He then addressed his relationship with Mrs Dewani, which he described as loving but turbulent, adding that they had argued over the plans for their £200,000 wedding.
At one point, she had wanted to call it off, saying he was 'too controlling'.
Dewani also revealed that he had fertility problems which meant the couple's chances of having children were slim, but said his wife was sympathetic.
In a moment of high drama, the court was later shown video of the abandoned taxi where Mrs Dewani was found after being shot dead.
There were audible gasps in the court from both sets of families as the back door of the vehicle is opened to reveal Mrs Dewani's dead body inside.
Shrien Dewani is seen in the dock in the Cape Town court today at the start of his trial over his alleged role in the shooting of his new bride Anni on their honeymoon in South Africa four years ago
In the dock: The wealthy care home owner formally pleaded not guilty to a string of charges including murder, kidnapping and defeating the ends of justice at the start of his trial
Swedish Mrs Dewani, an engineer, died from a single gunshot to the neck after the taxi she and her new husband were being driven in was 'carjacked' by two armed men in the township of Gugulethu.
Dewani and the driver escaped unharmed while Mrs Dewani was driven off alone.
The taxi driver and two other men have already been jailed over the fatal shooting – at least one of them, driver Zola Tongo, is expected to give evidence at Dewani's trial.
He told his own murder trial how Dewani promised him R15,000 (£850) in return for having his new wife killed.
Prosecutors are expected to say that Tongo recruited two men to stage a 'carjacking' as a cover for the contract killing.
Dewani: I consider myself bisexual, had relations with male prostitutes
After entering his not guilty pleas, Dewani chose immediately to deal with the issue of his sexuality - which is expected to be presented as the motive for wanting Mrs Dewani killed.
Reading out a lengthy statement, his lawyer Francois van Zyl said: 'I have had sexual interaction with both males and females. I consider myself to be bi-sexual.
'My sexual relations with males were mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs, including prostitutes such as Leopold Leisser.
'My sexual interactions with females were usually during the course of a relationship which consisted of other activities and emotional attachment.'
But he said he was 'instantly physically attracted to Anni... there was mutual chemistry.'
Anni Dewani's cousin Nishma Hindocha (left), father Vinod Hindocha (centre) and brother Anish Hindocha arrive for the trial of Shrien Dewani who is accused of plotting to kill his new bride on their honeymoon
Anni Dewani's father Vinod Hindocha (back), mother Nilam Hindocha (front), sister Ami Denborg (centre) and brother Anish Hindocha (getting out of car) arrive at the Western Cape High Court for the start of the trial
Support: Prakash Dewani (centre), the father of British businessman Shrien Dewani, arrives with family members and lawyers for the trial of Shrien Dewani at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town
Shrien Dewani's mother Snila Dewani (left) and father Prakash Dewani (centre) arrive for their son's trial
'Frustrated couple called off romance'
Painting a picture of their relationship as turbulent, Dewani said they called off the romance at one stage, but rekindled it in March 2010, before marrying later in Mumbai.
'Although we really frustrated each other, we were in love,' his statement asserted.
Mr Van Zyl read from a letter that Dewani had written to his fiancee about their relationship.
Sitting in the dock, with the Hindocha family leaning forward to hear every word of proceedings, Dewani smiled and then began to cry, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, as Mr Van Zyl read: 'I have tears in my eyes as I write this. I really do love you. I want to be with you forever.'
Anni 'stressed and overwhelmed' by plans for £200k wedding
His own stag party in Las Vegas was described in the statement, and how 'overwhelmed and stressed' his fiancee had felt at the preparations for the lavish £200,000 ceremony in Mumbai.
The couple fought over the planning, and on one occasion Anni had wanted to call it off, claiming Dewani was 'too controlling'.
Dewani's fertility problems meant slim chance of children
He told how he had abnormally low levels of hormones, leaving him little hope of ever becoming a father.
He had shared these fears with Anni after they began their relationship in the Summer of 2009 and she was sympathetic.
Shrien Dewani with his wife Anni. Mr Dewani will go on trial today for her murder as they honeymooned in South Africa. It is alleged he paid a hitman to kill her
'He placed the gun against my ear': Dewani on moment couple were ambushed
He described meeting Zola Tongo, the taxi driver who is expected to provide key testimony against him, and described the night he had taken his new wife out for dinner.
Then, persuaded by Tongo, he visited Gugulethu and a township restaurant made famous when it was visited by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Mr van Zyl said his client remembered being in Tongo's cab when it was attacked as they drove off the motorway and towards the township.
He said: 'The next thing I remember was banging noises coming from the front and right-hand side of the car.
'There was a lot of shouting in a language I did not understand.
'The next thing I recall is somebody next to me, who told me to lie down. The person had a gun in his hand. He was waving the gun in the air.'
The gunman told Dewani to 'Look down! Lie down!'
The statement read: 'We were both terrified and immediately complied with his demands.
'I was lying half on top of Anni. Another person was behind the steering wheel. I do not know where Tongo was at that stage.'
Dewani pleaded with the attackers to let him and Anni go, but they demanded his phone.
The defendant said: 'He searched me and found my phone in my trousers. He got angry.
'He placed the gun against my left ear and said words to the effect that I should not lie to him or he would shoot me.
'I heard a clicking noise from the gun which scared me even more. I have never been close to a real gun before.'
He said they returned to the motorway with another driver at the wheel, Anni was screaming, and he was ordered to keep her quiet.
Nilam and Vinod Hindocha, the parents of Anni Dewani who was shot on her honeymoon in South Africa in 2010. Father Vinod said the four years since she died have been 'torture' for the family
Anna Dewani with her father Vimod Hindocha. He said: 'All I ask for is the full story and justice'
He said: 'The driver said that they were not going to hurt us, they just wanted the car and they were going to let us go separately. I begged them to let us go together.'
He was ordered to leave the car with a gun to his head. He left through a window as the door would not open.
'The last thing I had said to Anni was to be quiet and not to say anything.'
He then desperately knocked on doors in the notorious township pleading for help, but none could understand him as he was so distraught.
Gasps from families as Anni's blood-covered body is shown in court
The first evidence presented to the court was a video taken of the abandoned car in the manner it was discovered by police.
There were audible gasps in the court from both sets of families as the back door of the vehicle is opened to reveal Mrs Dewani's dead body inside.
Dewani dropped his head in the dock, the victim's family shook theirs, as the dead woman is seen, still wearing her black evening dress, slumped sideways in the back.
Dewani admitted to having liaisons with male prostitutes including a German man called Leopold Leisser (above)
On her feet are a pair of patent high heeled shoes, a bruise can be seen on her leg, blood is smeared on her arm, apparently from the fatal shot to her neck.
Earlier, Dewani, wearing a dark suit, showed no emotion as prosecutor Adrian Mopp spent several minutes reading the lengthy indictment.
Dewani fixed his eyes on the charge sheet as all eyes in the court were on him.
Mr Mopp told the court Mrs Dewani's murder was 'planned or premeditated'.
He spoke clearly and confidently to tell the court he pleaded 'not guilty to all five counts'.
Mr Mopp told the court Mrs Dewani's murder was 'planned or premeditated'. Dewani fixed his gaze on the charge sheet as all eyes in the court were on him.
He then spoke clearly and confidently as he pleaded 'not guilty to all five counts'.
Mrs Dewani's parents, Vinod and Nilma Hindocha, earlier described as 'torture' their almost four-year wait to hear how their daughter was killed on her honeymoon days after her £200,000 wedding.
Dewani arrived at the court at around 6.30am local time, having been treated at the Valkenberg Hospital on the outskirts of Cape Town following his extradition from the UK.
In scenes similar to that of the recent trial of athlete Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria, media from across the globe battled for a vantage point.
The case is front page news in South Africa, with local paper The New Age running a splash headline 'Anni's family demand answers', following a press conference with the victim's family last night.
Mrs Dewani's sister Ami, brother Anish, uncle Ashok and cousin Nishma were also present at the hearing at the High Court in Cape Town, a few miles from where she was killed in November 2010.
All of her family were wearing a smiling photograph of her, trimmed with a vivid pink ribbon, which they had pinned to their clothes.
Bristol-based Dewani, 34, who was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after his wife's death, launched a protracted legal battle which lasted more than three years to avoid facing justice in South Africa.
But in April, a panel of High Court judges quashed his appeal against an earlier judgement and ruled he was fit to stand trial.
Much of the evidence presented in court is also likely to prove excruciating for Dewani's own family, who will be sitting close to the parents of his alleged victim in the cramped court room.
Shot: 28-year-old Mrs Dewani was found in an abandoned taxi (pictured) on the edge of one of Cape Town's sprawling township with a single bullet wound to the neck
The two families, once close, have not been in contact since Dewani's arrest more than three years ago.
South African prosecutors are expected to say at the Western Cape High Court that Mr Dewani was a closet homosexual who ordered his 28-year-old wife's death to escape from a marriage he felt pressured into by convention and his family.
According to statements to police made by a male prostitute, Dewani lived a double life in which he paid for sadomasochistic sex, fuelled by drugs and bondage paraphernalia.
Leopold Leisser, who styles himself the German Master, claims Dewani paid for three sex sessions during which he asked to be slapped and verbally abused with racially insulting slang.
Dewani is also said to have told the prostitute, whom he met via the website Gaydar, that he was due to marry a 'lovely girl' but could not break off the engagement because he would be 'disowned by his family'.
Mrs Dewani's cousin is also expected to be among witnesses to give evidence that the relationship between the newlyweds had been strained for many months, and that Dewani had spurned his bride's romantic advances.
On the eve of his trial, Ashok Hindocha, Mrs Dewani's uncle appealed directly to Dewani, who left the country three days after his wife's death and has never spoken to the police: 'Tell us what happened in court so we can go on with our lives.
'We are not going to get Anni back, we know that, but we need to know the truth so we can move on with our lives.'
Mrs Dewani's grieving father said he believed the South African authorities have a strong case against his son-in-law.
'Three people are already convicted and all their fingers are pointing at him,' Mr Hindocha, 65, said.
'He has to answer these questions, he never has.'
The case will be heard in the absence of a jury, as is the South African custom. Instead it will be up to judge Jeanette Traverso to record a verdict.
The trial is expected to last at least two months.
THE TIMELINE OF THE HONEYMOON MURDER
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.
November 23 - Dewani rejects speculation that he was somehow involved in the car-jacking, telling The Sun: 'People who suggest this could not have seen us together.'
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 (£850) 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, originally from Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, appears at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London and is remanded in custody as the South African authorities fight to extradite him.
2011
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 - He is compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act at Fromeside Clinic, a secure hospital in Bristol.
May 3 to 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 20 - Wynberg Regional Court in South Africa hears claims that Dewani approached an airport shuttle service operator and sought a hitman to murder his wife almost immediately after the couple arrived at a five-star hotel in Cape Town.
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.
Prakash Dewani (right), father of British businessman Shrien Dewani and brother Preyen Dewani (centre) arrive with family members and legal representatives at the Western Cape High Court, South Africa, in May
2012
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.
Xolile Mngeni is jailed for life for shooting Mrs Dewani.
2013
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. Lawyers acting for Dewani immediately announce their intention to appeal.
October 22 - Dewani's extradition is delayed as a panel of High Court judges decides the murder suspect can have a further hearing as there are outstanding legal issues the court must decide.
2014
January 31 - Dewani, compulsorily detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act, loses his latest High Court bid to block his extradition after assurances about the suspect's treatment by South African authorities.
February 21 - The Judicial Office confirms Dewani is applying to the High Court to try to get his extradition case heard by the Supreme Court, the highest in the land, in an effort to delay his removal from the UK.
March 3 - Three High Court judges reject Dewani's current grounds of appeal, further paving the way for his extradition.
March 23 - South African officials confirm Dewani will be extradited on April 7.
April 7 - Hours before Dewani's departure, Anni Dewani's brother tells of the family's anguish in their quest for answers. Anish Hindocha tells ITV: 'We are just focusing on this case at the moment and it is hard to even start making the grieving process final yet because there are so many questions we need answers to.'
April 8 - Dewani arrives in Cape Town at around 8.15am ahead of a court hearing, having flown out of Bristol Airport the night before. He is later sent to a psychiatric unit. His family say in a statement: 'Shrien remains committed to proving his innocence in a court of law and uncovering the truth behind his wife's murder.'
May 12 - Staff at the Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town where Dewani is being treated say the murder suspect's condition has improved. He will remain at the unit for further treatment, they confirm.
June 20 - Dewani's defence counsel Francois van Zyl tells Western Cape High Court his client will be 'fit to plead' at the start of his trial on October 6, subject to being found fit by a mental health panel.
October 5 - On the eve of the trial, Anni Dewani's family say they are looking for 'closure' before they can finally mourn.
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