www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/28/eaten.by.lions.reut -> www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/28/eaten.by.lions.reut/
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- A white South African farmer and one of his employees were convicted of feeding his former black worker t o lions while still alive in a premeditated murder, a court ruled on Thu rsday. Investigators found little more than a skull, a few bones and a finger la st year in the enclosure for rare white lions in the northern Limpopo pr ovince, where the murder took place. The case had sparked outrage in South Africa, where some white farmers ar e still accused of abusing black workers more than a decade after the en d of apartheid. Judge George Maluleke passed the guilty verdict against farmer Mark Scott -Crossley and worker Simon Mathebula, who had both denied killing 41-yea r-old former employee Nelson Chisale, the SAPA news agency reported. The post-mortem gave Chisale's cause of death as "being mauled by lions". Co-accused Richard Mathebula will be tried separately after he was admitt ed to hospital with tuberculosis. "The evidence of guilt against (Scott-Crossley) is overwhelming," Malulek e ruled after six weeks of evidence by 23 witnesses -- excluding the acc used. Maluleke ruled that Scott-Crossley had held a grudge against Chisale afte r the former farmworker complained about him to the department of manpow er. Chisale also brought a malicious damage case against Scott-Crossley with the police for burning his property after Scott-Crossley had dismis sed him. Scott-Crossley even went as far as banning Chisale from his game farm, th e judge found in his almost six-hour ruling. The "bad blood" spilled over on the day of Chisale's murder when he arriv ed at the farm only to be detained, the judge told a packed courtroom. Scott-Crossley, handcuffed and holding a Bible, smiled and joked before a nd after the ruling, while Mathebula stood in the dock with his head bow ed. Scott-Crossley had instructed his co-accused to keep Chisale on the farm until he returned to deal with him, the judge found. They did not seek help for themselves to avert this danger," Maluleke found. Scott-Crossley admitted during the trial he told his workers to "sort out " Chisale, but said he then merely helped them dispose of Chisale's body after he was killed in his absence.
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