The judge in the trial of Indian-origin British businessman accused of killing his wife on their honeymoon today ruled that e-mails between him and an unnamed third party relating to his conflicting sexuality were inadmissible as evidence.

The state had raised the issue to highlight the fact that Shrien Dewani, who admitted at the start of the trial that he was bisexual, could have had a motive for hiring three people to kill his wife Anni while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.

But Western Cape High Court Deputy Judge President Jeannette Traverso ruled that it was irrelevant and inadmissible, saying that "Dewani's conflicting sexuality was not in dispute".

Dewani, 34, is standing trial in the Western Cape High Court and is accused of being the mastermind who hired the three men to kill his 28-year-old Indo-Swedish wife in a staged carjacking.