Donovan Moodley, the convicted killer of 21-year-old student Leigh Matthews, has asked for a retrial to prove who her real killers are.

Moodley filed a second application for a special entry for leave to appeal against his sentence at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Moodley was found guilty of murdering Matthews after he kidnapped her from the Bond University campus in Sandton, Johannesburg, in July 2004. He held her for several hours before taking R50 000 ransom money from her father, and he then shot her.

Sentenced to life

He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, 15 years for the kidnapping and 10 years for extortion by Judge Joop Labuschagne on 4 August 2005.

Moodley withdrew his original leave to appeal, but applied for a special entry for leave to appeal last month. This was dismissed by Labuschagne.

On Tuesday, he filed a second application for leave to appeal.

In his application, Moodley said Labuschagne "committed a material irregularity in the proceedings during the conviction".

He said Labuschagne failed to clear up discrepancies in Moodley's confession.

Beeld newspaper reported while Moodley admitted to the murder, he said Labuschagne made no effort to make sure that Moodley had in fact planned the murder.

He said he shot Matthews because he did not know "how else to get rid of her".

"Only after I considered letting Matthews go, after receiving the ransom money, did I realise that it can't be done. I decided there and then to shoot her, and I did shoot her," he said. He did not plan the murder, he said.

Pointing finger at Byleveld

He also accused one of South Africa's top detectives, Director Piet Byleveld, of manipulating the investigation of the case, in order to conclude it as speedily as possible, reported Beeld.

He said during the time of the investigation, Byleveld was under "financial pressure" and he had his eyes on a bonus for arresting somebody for the murder.

Moodley said he was going to ask for a retrial as he had new evidence. He wanted to change his guilty plea and would prove who the real killers were.

Byleveld replied to both the newspapers saying that Moodley's statements were "ridiculous".

Moodley now has to wait for a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal to rule on his application.