Lion man 'inherently good'
2005-09-29 17:04
Phalaborwa - Mark Scott-Crossley, who threw a man to lions to die, was not a bad person, Phalaborwa Circuit Court heard on Thursday.
"He (Scott-Crossley) has got good attributes," said his counsel, Johann Engelbrecht SC, before Judge George Maluleke.
He was speaking during closing arguments in the deliberations on the sentence Scott-Crossley should receive for masterminding the murder of Nelson Chisale, who was assaulted, then fed to lions in Hoedspruit in January last year.
"He had a life in which trauma existed. I can appreciate the guilt felt by the accused for the disappearance of his sister: 'Had I gone with, this would not have happened'," Engelbrecht told the court.
Scott-Crossley is the brother of Tracy Lee Scott-Crossley, one of six schoolgirls who disappeared in 1988 and 1989 shortly before paedophile Gert van Rooyen and his lover Joey Haarhoff committed suicide in a police chase.
The court should bear this in mind, Engelbrecht said.
'Should be treated as a first offender'
"The perception of the accused is that he is to blame and I cannot fault him for that."
A previous conviction for the theft of a spare wheel was not a crime of violence, he argued, and had taken place a long time ago.
"My submission is that he should be treated as a first offender.
"He has good human qualities. He is good human material. This must receive cognisance from the court," said Engelbrecht.
He told the court that, on the probabilities, Scott-Crossley was unlikely to reoffend.
Earlier on Thursday, Mduduzi Thabede, appearing for Scott-Crossley's partner-in-crime Simon Mathebula, submitted that society could be protected without sending him to jail for a long time.
He appealed to the court to take into account the fact that Mathebula was a first offender and had already been punished through the expulsion of his family from their community.
The South African Council of Churches accepted the killing of Nelson Chisale was not racially motivated, the Phalaborwa Circuit Court was told on Thursday.
This was the testimony of SACC general secretary Molefe Tsele with regard to a letter that had been sent to the then-director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, copies of which went to then-justice minister Penuell Maduna and director-general in the presidency, Frank Chikane.
SACC changes its view
In the letter, Tsele conveyed the shock and outrage of the SACC and the 25 million Christians it represented at the killing.
Registering condemnation of "this cruel and inhumane act", he wrote then that the SACC refused to sit silently and watch while such racially motivated crimes were perpetrated against powerless farm workers.
Tsele was told by Scott-Crossley's counsel, Johann Engelbrecht SC: "For your information, the court has not found that this offence was racially motivated," .
Tsele responded that he would accept the decision of the court.
- SAPA