[Panga=Machete. Jan]

A mark on the skull of lion victim Nelson Chisale was not caused by a panga but is a “normal groove” for veins, a physical anthropologist told the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Thursday.

University of Pretoria physical anthropologist Prof Maryna Steyn, however, acknowledged that marks on the membrane covering the skull before it was boiled clean could have been caused either by a panga or from the drying out of the membrane.

“On the bones I had at my disposal, I did not see any marks other than bite and chew marks,” she said in her rebuttal evidence for the state.

Chisale (41) was viciously beaten with a panga before being fed to lions in an encampment at the Mokwalo White Lion Project on January 31 last year.

His alleged killers, Mark Scott-Crossley (37) and Simon Mathebula (43), have pleaded not guilty. The trial of a third accused, Richard Mathebula (41), was separated after he fell ill and was admitted to hospital where doctors found it unlikely he would be fit to stand trial in less than three months.

Charges were withdrawn against a fourth man, Robert Mnisi, when he turned state witness.

Disagreeing with the evidence of a defence witness, forensic pathologist Dr Leon Wagner, Steyn said it would not be possible to determine from scanning electron micrographs whether Chisale was alive when he was thrown to the lions.

She had done four micrographs of Chisale’s bones for her personal interest to examine the bite marks.

All these did was to show the detail of surface characteristics, such as cracks and fissures.

“In my opinion, it is not possible to tell from scanning electron micrography whether a person was dead or alive.”

She also disagreed with Wagner that the burial of Chisale’s bones had resulted in an “irretrievable loss of evidence”.

Steyn said chop marks and stone tool marks are studied many years after the fact on archaeological remains.

Chisale’s remains were buried at his birthplace, Maboloka village, near Brits, last March, after the Pretoria High Court found the dignity of his family outweighed the right of his alleged killers to a fair trial. The defence had applied to stop the funeral to enable a forensic pathologist to perform tests on his bones to determine the time and cause of death.

“I think if one wants to excavate the bones, I think one could still do the scanning,” Steyn testified before Judge George Maluleke, who is hearing the case with assessors Kate Choshi and Elphus Seemela.

In a report on her examination of the bones, Steyn wrote that all of them showed evidence of bite and chew marks, “some with extensive damage”.

“Some of the bones show evidence of small, depressed fractures … while others are more completely eaten away with more extensive damage. Some soft tissues were present on arrival and the bones were boiled to remove it.”.

She further reported that there were “no other signs of trauma, such as marks by a sharp object or gunshot wounds”, and no signs of chronic disease.

The defence closed its case on Wednesday after Wagner told the court he was convinced Chisale was dead when thrown to the lions. An examination of the shredded remains of his clothing revealed little blood and no sign of the excessive defecation there would have been had he been alive at the time. — Sapa

Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/br…/p>