Crowd bays for suspect's blood

2003-07-17 13:29

Cape Town - A crowd bayed on Thursday for the blood of the man who appeared in Wynberg magistrate's court, Cape Town, in connection with the murder of eight-year-old Sasha-Leigh Crook.

Moegamat Isaacs, 25, was not asked to plead, and the case was postponed to July 24 for further investigation. He will remain in custody in Bellville police cells.

About a hundred people gathered outside the court gates after the hearing, shouting threats and obscenities as they waited for Isaacs to emerge.

"Come and get it, you murderer," yelled one woman.

However, heavily-armed police escorted Isaacs out of the court precincts through a side gate, and they left in a vehicle with sirens wailing.

"It's so unfair that he committed a crime, but he's getting protection," said Carmen Jantjies, from the Ottery neighbourhood where Sasha-Leigh disappeared from her grandparents' care on July 6.

"Where was the protection for the child? He's not the president. He's being treated like the president now. It's wrong."

Earlier, the clean-shaven, neatly-groomed Isaacs, wearing a grey jersey and black pants, appeared in Court 4 under heavy police guard.

He did not look round at the packed public gallery when he came up from the cells.

He stood with hands loosely clasped on the rail of the dock, speaking only to confirm to magistrate Wessel Marais that he wanted legal aid.

There was a brief delay as court personnel scurried to find a lawyer from the Legal Aid Board.

Marais postponed the case at the request of state advocate Christhenus van der Vijver.

As Isaacs was led back to the cells, there was an angry confrontation in the court as people shouted at Isaacs's family, including his mother, Fatima.

One woman yelled: "You are going to be killed."

Isaacs is a neighbour of Sasha-Leigh' grandparents in Adrian Road, Ottery.

He allegedly helped in the search for the little girl after it became known she was missing.

Her partly-mutilated body was found dumped in a field near Zeekoevlei on Monday, and Isaacs was arrested that night.

- SAPA