South Africa honeymoon murder: Workmate denies affair with Shrien Dewani
12th December 2010 · View Comments
The Mirror:
A manager at Shrien Dewani’s family firm yesterday denied she had an affair with the honeymoon murder suspect.
Mum-of-two Michelle Jones, 39, hit back at rumours and declared: “I have never had a relationship with Shrien other than a friendship.”
In a statement, her lawyer Charlotte Harris added: “The only relationship Shrien and Michelle have ever had is a professional relationship.
“Any suggestion that there has been any other relationship is unsubstantiated gossip designed to smear Shrien’s name.”
Miss Jones worked for the care home firm two years before Mr Dewani bought it in 2005. At the time she was an administrator in the Ilfracombe branch, Devon.
She has risen to human resources manager at its Bristol HQ and moved to live at nearby Portishead.
A friend said: “Rumours about the extent of their friendship seem to have spread because Michelle has been successful and is a good mate of Shrien. But they insist they have never had a physical relationship.”
Michelle’s son Ben Hopkins, 19, who lives with dad Richard in Ilfracombe, said: “So far the police have not spoken to my mum.”
The rumours of a tryst with Miss Jones are the latest twist in a week which saw the millionaire arrested and facing extradition to South Africa.
The 30-year-old is suspected of paying hit men to kill Anni in a staged carjacking in a township.
The pretty 28-year-old was shot dead after the newlyweds’ taxi was carjacked in Cape Town’s dangerous Gugulethu township in November.
Mr Dewani said he was dragged from the cab and dumped on the road. Swedish-born Anni’s body was found in the taxi the next morning.
Mr Dewani is accused of paying taxi driver Zola Tongo, who has already pleaded guilty to the murder.
Security cameras at the Dewanis Cape Town hotel are said to have captured meetings between Mr Dewani and Tongo before and after Anni was killed.
Lawyers for the South African authorities told a High Court bail hearing in London that CCTV evidence shows Mr Dewani handing over a mystery white package.
Mr Dewani is alleged to have arranged to pay gunmen Xolile Mngeni and Mzwamadoda Qwabe £1,400. But his defence say the self-confessed robbers were desperate to escape a whole life sentence by falsely accusing him.
Mr Dewani, of Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, was bailed and faces tagging, curfew and daily reporting to police.
He has also faced allegations he is secretly gay, which he has denied.
Mr Dewani, who met Anni in 2009, started dating Rani Kansagra, the daughter of an Indian airline tycoon, in August 2008. They became engaged in December that year but he called off the wedding two months later.
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/12/12/south-africa-honeymoon-murder-workmate-denies-affair-with-shrien-dewani-115875-22777611/#ixzz17tZSE8Dc
