The judge in the lion-murder trial has called one of the accused a liar.

Judge George Maluleke said in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court yesterday that Mark Scott-Crossley was aware that he had thrown Nelson Chisale into the lions’ enclosure yet failed to admit that the skeletal remains were Chisale’s.

“You are a liar,” said the judge.

Scott-Crossley, 37, and his co-accused, Richard “Doctor” Mathebula, 41, and Simon Mathebula, 43, are accused of murdering Chisale, who was beaten and then thrown to lions at the Mokwalo White Lion Project in Limpopo last year. They have pleaded not guilty.

‘What is this programme of the good doctor that he must hold the whole court to hostage?’
This week Scott-Crossley admitted that he helped Richard Mathebula and Robert Mnisi – who has since turned state witness – to throw Chisale into the lions’ enclosure.

However, he denied that he was present when Chisale was assaulted or that Chisale was alive when tossed into the den.

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On Thursday Judge Maluleke read out a sworn statement by Scott-Crossley, made during his second bail application in March. In it, he argued that the skeletal remains found at Mokwalo were not those of Chisale.

Scott-Crossley had made the submission after DNA tests conducted on the remains proved negative.

Judge Maluleke called him a liar, saying he was aware that he had thrown Chisale into the lions’ enclosure, yet failed to admit that the skeletal remains were his. He said Scott-Crossley had tried to use the DNA test results to obtain bail.

“Why did you lie in your bail application?” the judge asked. Scott-Crossley replied: “I didn’t want to make the state’s job easier.”

The trial has been postponed “with great regret” until Tuesday, for a forensic pathologist from Kempton Park to give evidence for the defence.

“What is his reason? What is this programme of the good doctor that he must hold the whole court to hostage?” asked Judge Maluleke.

“We all want to bring the matter to a conclusion fairly and expeditiously,” he said, standing down the court.

Scott-Crossley’s attorney had spoken to the doctor on Tuesday and was told the expert would not be available this week.

Although the pathologist had been on standby for the first two weeks of the trial, he had not been consulted on his availability when it was then postponed to this week, said advocate for the defence, Johann Engelbrecht SC. He denied that the pathologist was holding the court to ransom.

The defence still had to consult the expert, who was available to them only on Thursday and Friday. He was in great demand, said Engelbrecht, had other court commitments, and was already engaged in a postmortem.

“We are already engaged,” retorted Judge Maluleke, who felt the explanation was not good enough.

Scott-Crossley’s defence intends calling the pathologist as its penultimate witness to testify on the victim’s loss of blood and the possible cause of death.

In another development, the court granted an application to separate the trial of Richard Mathebula, who collapsed last week and is being treated for suspected tuberculosis. A doctor who examined him found he would probably not be fit to stand trial in the next three months.

The judge said that because of the uncertainty of his prognosis, the court felt it was in the interests of justice and the speedy resolution of the matter that the trial of the other two accused “must not be hampered by this uncertainty”.

This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on February 25, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>