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Police want to question 'lion man' Mark Scott-Crossley after 4x4 rams Limpopo man

FILE PICTURE: Mark Scott-Crossley in the dock during the Nelson Chisale murder case. Pic, Kopano Tlape. 17/05/2005. © SOwetan.
FILE PICTURE: Mark Scott-Crossley in the dock during the Nelson Chisale murder case. Pic, Kopano Tlape. 17/05/2005. © SOwetan.

Police want to question a Limpopo game farm owner‚ who made international news headlines in 2004 after he threw his former employee into a lion’s den.

Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo told the Sunday Times this week that police want to question Mark Scott-Crossley in connection with an attack of a wildlife employee‚ Silence Mabunda‚ who was run over with a 4x4 vehicle in Hoedspruit last Wednesday.

“At first we thought it was a matter of hit and run but after gathering enough evidence we have realized that we dealing with an attempted murder case‚” Mojapelo said.

He said they are appealing to members of the public who may come across Scott-Crossley to report his sighting to the nearest police station.

“We have been to his place of residence several times but all in vain.”

Brigadier Mojapelo told TMG Digital on Wednesday that Mabunda had given police a description of his attacker but stressed that Scott-Crossely was not directly implicated.

“Our preliminary investigations indicate that the suspect was driving a Jeep and as the police‚ we are calling upon Mark Scott-Crossley to come to us so that he can assist us in our investigation. We are not saying that it’s him. We are looking for a suspect‚” said Mojapelo.

TMG Digital was informed that the incident took place on the 14th of December at about 7.30pm.

Speaking from his hospital bed‚ Mabunda told the Sunday Times that a man had attacked him without provocation and left him for dead.

Mabunda‚ a general worker at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Hoedspruit‚ said: “I went to the local shop to buy airtime after work. I then received a call and I stepped outside the shop to answer my phone. It was while I was busy on the phone this man came before behind‚ grabbed my phone and smashed it on the ground for no reason.

“Two other farmers who witnessed this asked him ‘what wrong have I done to him’ without any answer.”

Mabunda said he managed to pick up the pieces of what was left of his phone and started walking home.

“As I was walking I saw silver 4x4 car following slowly‚ as the car drove past me I realized that it was being driven by the same man who damaged my phone.

“He drove stopped about 50 metres in front of me then he switched on his lights as it was around 7pm‚ then drove straight to me and ran me over me.

“I tried standing up and he ran over me for the second time‚ I think I survived by pretending to be dead. He drove off without checking my condition and I was later discovered by a farm worker who called for help.”

Brigadier Mojapelo said Mabunda’s left leg is badly damaged.

“I might not be able to walk again but I am going for more tests this week. My whole body is in pain. I never met and spoke to him ever in my life‚ and he just came from nowhere to put my life upside down.” Mabunda said.

Scott-Crossley was initially jailed for life in October 2005 after he and two of his farm employees threw a former farm worker‚ Nelson Chisale‚ into a lion enclosure where he was eaten alive.

Scott-Crossley appealed his life sentence and the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein set aside his murder conviction and substituted it into five years’ imprisonment stating that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chisale was still alive when he was fed to the lions on September 28‚ 2007.

While Scott-Crossley was serving his sentence at Barberton Maximum Security Prison he assaulted a fellow inmate‚ Jacobus Cordier‚ whom he claimed tried to attack him with a sharpened spoon.

Scott-Crossley was released on parole in August 2008 and he went back to his farm outside Hoedspruit and continued with his game farming life.

 

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