Gruff, pugnacious, broad-chested and bearded, with a barrelling gait, he could be mistaken on the newsroom floor for an old merchant mariner, but his bark was far worse than his bite, and concealed a depth of compassion and a keen affinity with the underdog and a passion to right injustice.

Jeremy Gordin, who was murdered by unknown attackers at his Parkview Johannesburg home on Friday, was an old-school journalist - as adept with the long-form journalism for which he was justly acclaimed as he was with his effortless ability to provide flawless dictates to copy takers off the cuff without recourse to his notes during breaks in court proceedings..

Gruff, pugnacious, broad-chested and bearded, with a barrelling gait, he could be mistaken on the newsroom floor for an old merchant mariner, but his bark was far worse than his bite and concealed a depth of compassion and a keen affinity with the underdog and a passion to right injustice.

Born in Pretoria and educated at Brakpan High School after a brief stint in Southeast Asia with his family while his pharmacist father worked for the UN, Gordin finished his matric at Damelin in downtown Johannesburg. He got a scholarship to study in Israel where he completed a BA, smoked a lot of pot, talked a lot and was picked to play rugby for Israel as a prop forward. Returning to South Africa, he did his year's national service, volunteering for the South African Defence Force's elite 1 Parachute Battalion, completing...