Those who know Shrien Dewani describe him as a man who plans every intricate detail of his life.

So to leave the murder of his wife in the hands of a taxi driver he had never met before seemed at best uncharacteristic, and at worst downright unbelievable, they said.

In the dock of the Western Cape High Court in South Africa, the 34-year-old occasionally let his mask of composure slip.

He was, after all, in the city where his wife had been brutally killed four years earlier while the pair were on their honeymoon.

For nearly two months, Dewani had to sit and listen to conmen and chancers try to frame him for the murder of 28-year-old Anni.

During the three-hour ruling today - at which he was acquitted of Anni's murder - he kept his emotions in check, choosing to stare straight ahead to Judge Jeanette Traverso.

As she confirmed his freedom, Dewani sighed and bolted immediately for the holding cell that would provide him with a passage to a waiting car, rather than a packed courtroom.

At points during the trial, his expressionless demeanour wavered.

A shake of the head, a nod of agreement and frequent stern looks shot like darts at anyone in the courtroom who dared interrupt the silence.

On the trial's first day, Dewani was forced to wait patiently in the dock as media and press were allowed a few snatched images of the suspect.

A flashbulb appeared to fluster the businessman, and during the trial he was further disturbed by doors slamming and phones ringing.

It was a world away from his successful life back in the UK.

Dewani read economics at the University of Manchester and qualified as an accountant.

Following university he began work at accountancy and consultancy giant Deloitte in London when he met his future wife through mutual friends.

They dated for 18 months, during which he returned to Bristol to run the family firm, PSP Healthcare.

Following Anni's murder, his family rubbished reports he was having an affair with a gay rent boy and also dismissed the idea that he stood to gain from his wife's life insurance policy.

There was no prenuptial agreement, no dowry and no pressure from the family to marry, they said.

The couple decided they wanted to marry and arranged their own wedding, his supporters said, stressing he wanted a family with his new wife and to plan a future with her.

In an effort to end speculation about cracks in the pair's relationship, the family released a video of them sharing their first dance as a married couple.

Anni, who he met for the first time 18 months before they wed, was considered by some to be a trophy bride.

An intelligent, successful career woman who had dabbled in modelling, the pair arranged a lavish £200,000 wedding in Mumbai.

They had plans to move house, with designer wardrobes to be built for both Anni and Dewani.

But Dewani, who was privately educated at Bristol Grammar School, which boasts a 500-year history and costs more than £11,000 per year, was leading a double life.

His witness statement read to the court confirmed relationships with gay men, while he was also logged in to fetish and gay sex websites on his honeymoon.

Anni's family became suspicious in the days after her death in November 2010, even taking steps to record conversations with her new husband.

But for all the allegations, the crucial one - one of plotting to kidnap and murder his wife - went unproved.