One of the men convicted of killing newlywed Anni Dewani has died in prison of a brain tumour before he was due to testify at her husband's trial.
Xolile Mngeni, who was branded "merciless and evil" by a judge during his sentencing, was jailed for life for shooting Mrs Dewani while she was on honeymoon in Cape Town in 2010.
He was due to give evidence in the trial of Shrien Dewani, the British businessman accusing of conspiring to kill his wife.
Mngeni had been diagnosed with a rare brain tumour while awaiting trial four years ago and had surgery to remove it.
The court had heard he would probably have only two to five years to live if the tumour returned.
Mngeni's death comes 12 days after Mr Dewani went on trial in South Africa.
The 34-year-old denies plotting to kill Mrs Dewani on their luxury getaway to Cape Town in November 2010, as they took a taxi ride through a township.
The care home owner, from Westbury-on-Trym near Bristol, is accused of paying three men to kill his Swedish-born wife, days after their lavish £200,000 wedding in Mumbai.
Dewani said he and his wife were kidnapped at gunpoint as they drove through Gugulethu in Cape Town in a taxi.
He was released unharmed, but Mrs Dewani's body was found in the abandoned car the next day. She had been shot.
He denies the five charges against him, which include murder and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Mngeni was convicted of shooting Mrs Dewani, while taxi driver Zola Tongo and Mziwamadoda Qwabe are also serving jail terms in connection with the murder.
Reports suggest prosecutors in South Africa had spoken to Mngeni but had not planned to call him as a witness in the trial because of the poor state of his health.
Mngeni was found guilty at the Western Cape High Court in 2012 of premeditated murder.
He was also convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, but acquitted of Mrs Dewani's kidnapping.
During sentencing, Judge Robert Henney said Mngeni deserved the maximum punishment for killing Mrs Dewani.
He said: "He had no regard to her right to freedom, dignity, and totally disregarded and showed no respect to her right to life by brutally killing her with utter disdain."
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