[See my comments in the other story next to this. Jan]

Phalaborwa – Why was a “tasty morsel” such as a finger left intact by the lions which attacked Nelson Chisale, a pathologist asked in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Wednesday.

While photographs showed blades of grass between and over the bone fragments found in the lions’ encampment at Mokwalo White Lion Project, “all of a sudden, the finger lies of top of the grass blades”, pathologist Leon Wagner pointed out to the court.

He is testifying in defence of Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, who is accused with Simon Mathebula, 43, of murdering Chisale, who was viciously assaulted before being fed to lions. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

In previous evidence, the court has heard that all that was left of Chisale was a shaft of human long bones, a skull with no mandible, fragments of rib, vertebrae, pelvic girdle and a finger, his shredded shirt and ripped pair of khaki trousers.

The finger should have been examined under a microscope to determine whether the edge where it was severed was sharp or torn, Wagner told the court under cross-examination by State prosecutor Ivy Thenga.

While photographs showed that the other skeletal remains had been “eaten virtually clean”, a “tasty morsel such as a finger tip is still intact”.

“How is it possible that a small morsel remains behind?” he asked. “Why only that part of the finger and nothing else?”

The controversial photograph of the remains which appeared in Beeld newspaper shortly after the trial began in January, appeared not to include the finger. It was said to be at the police’s fingerprint division.

The question remained why a fingerprint from this was relied on to identify Chisale when DNA testing would have confirmed beyond any doubt the owner of the bone remnants.

Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/New…/p>