The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Friday dismissed an application by Dina Rodrigues for leave to appeal against her murder conviction.
The SCA also refused an application for an order directing that an appeal against her sentence be heard by the Bloemfontein court.
Rodrigues was the mastermind in the murder of six-month-old baby Jordan-Leigh Norton. She hired four men, Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu, to carry out the murder in Cape Town on June 15 2005.
Jordan was the child of Natasha Norton and Neil Wilson. Wilson, a teacher, had been romantically involved with Norton but at the time of the murder was going out with Rodrigues.
Rodrigues was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Cape High Court in June last year.
‘Evil personified’
On sentencing in the Cape High Court, Judge Basheer Waglay said the murder was ”calculated, callous and cold-blooded”, and ”cowardly and cruel in the extreme”.
Of Rodrigues, the judge said: ”At no stage during the trial did she show any remorse as the instigator of this heinous murder. Wilson, her lover at the time of the murder, described her as a loving and caring person, and her former school principal also had praise for her as a pupil.
”However, these words ring hollow against the background of what she did. Ultimately, hers was the hand that held the hand that murdered the baby.”
He said she had ”returned to the safety of her workplace” after engaging taxi owner Mfazwe to recruit Bobotyane, Gwada and Sigenu to carry out the murder.
The judge added: ”This was the most horrendous of crimes, from a calculated, evil mind. When she returned to her place of employ afterwards, I wonder if it even bothered her that she had just contracted men to murder a baby. I wonder how she slept at night, knowing that soon she would have a baby killed.
”She had plenty of time to reconsider, time to stop the plan, but all she did was to ensure that the murder took place. This is evil personified — for her, organising the murder was like going to a supermarket to buy groceries. This was simply callousness of spirit.
”Everyone had ample chance to abandon the plan and walk away, but no one did. This murder was nothing short of barbaric.”
He said it required a particularly evilness of thought to murder a baby. — Sapa