'Lion killer' in court again

2008-01-16 14:00

Sydney Masinga

Barberton - Mark Scott-Crossley will appear in the Barberton Magistrate's Court in Mpumalanga on Thursday on charges of assaulting a fellow inmate while serving time for the murder of a farm labourer who was killed and fed to lions.

Scott-Crossley is accused of assaulting fellow inmate, Jacobus Cordier, 40, at the Barberton maximum security prison on December 9 2006.

Cordier, who was serving a ten-year sentence for car theft, suffered head injuries and had to be released from prison because he was left partially paralysed following the assault.

Scott-Crossley has already pleaded not guilty to assault.

Scott-Crossley has also successfully appealed against his life sentence for the murder of Chisale.

The Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein reduced Scott-Crossley's sentence to five years on a lesser charge of being an accessory, after the fact, to murder.

Three judges in the Supreme Court of Appeals found that the high court prosecutors had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Scott-Crossley had taken part in the murder.

Chisale was killed in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, in January 2004.

Scott-Crossley's co-accused, Simon Mathebula, is serving 15 years in jail for the murder. They were both sentenced on October 1 last year.

A third accused died before his trial was completed.

Chisale's skull and some gnawed bones were all that remained after the body was thrown to three white lions at the Mokwalo lion breeding project.

Scott-Crossley had recently fired Chisale from his construction business at Engedi game farm. Chisale had been helping to build a lodge on the farm before being fired. He was killed when he returned to collect some of his belongings.

- African Eye