Life sentence for white South African who fed worker to lions

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2005

PHALABORWA, South Africa (AFP) — A court has sentenced a white South African to life in prison and his black accomplice to 12 years in jail for feeding a black farm worker to lions.

Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, a white building contractor, and farm labourer Simon Mathebula, 43, were in April found guilty of murdering Nelson Chisale, whose bloodied remains were found in a lion reserve near the famed Kruger National Park.

Judge George Maluleke of the Phalaborwa circuit court sentenced Scott-Crossley to life imprisonment Friday but gave Mathebula 15 years, of which three years were suspended.

The state had called for life imprisonment for both men, citing the exceptionally gruesome nature of the crime that took place on January 31, 2004 near the northeastern city...