Riot Hlatshwayo

Riot Hlatshwayo

Mark Scott-Crossley, the farmer who together with his workers threw an ex-employee's body into a lions enclosure, and who was released from prison last Thursday, has started serving his community service as part of his parole conditions.

Scott-Crossley worked in the garden at the Acornhoek police station for four hours of hard labour on Tuesday, Mpumalanga police spokesman Superintendent Abie Khoabane confirmed.

Scott-Crossley was initially sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2005, but the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein reduced the sentence to five years.

The court set aside his murder conviction and convicted him on a lesser offence of being an accessory after the fact of murder.

According to Sarie Peens, spokesman for the department of correctional services, Scott-Crossley's parole conditions include that he should be visited at home at least three times a month and at work at least once a month. He is also compelled to visit community corrections offices or any other place agreed upon for the purpose of consultation at least once a month, and community corrections is authorised to subject him to further conditions.

Scott-Crossley's co-accused, Simon Mathebula, is still languishing in jail. He is serving a 15-year sentence, while the other co-accused, Richard Mathebula, died in jail.

Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula were convicted of murder following the beating and throwing of Nelson Chisale into the white lions' breeding enclosure near Hoedspruit.