JOHANNESBURG, Sept 30: A white farmer convicted of murder for feeding a black worker to lions was jailed for life by a South African judge on Friday, ending a racially charged case which highlighted abuse of rural black labourers.

The South African Press Association (SAPA) reported that Mark Scott-Crossley — who got married in court just before being sentenced — was given life and black labourer Simon Mathebula was sentenced to 15 years, partly suspended, for his role in a murder which shocked the crime-hardened nation.

“Let him rot in jail,” someone shouted from the back of the crush of people streaming from the courtroom, SAPA reported. The men were convicted in April.

The grisly killing of 41-year-old farm worker Nelson Chisale provoked an outcry in South Africa where, more than a decade after the end of apartheid rule, some white farmers are still accused of abusing and exploiting black workers.

Little more than Chisale’s skull, shards of bone and a finger were found at an enclosure for rare white lions after the murder early last year.

The incident was apparently sparked by a dispute between the deceased and his former employer Scott-Crossley.

In testimony earlier this year, the court heard that Chisale was assaulted when he returned to collect his belongings from the farm where he previously worked.

It heard that Scott-Crossley had pointed a gun at him and told him to pray.

A few hours later the prosecution maintained Chisale was thrown alive over the fence of a lion enclosure. A post mortem showed the cause of death as being “mauled by lions”.

The court ruled in April that Scott-Crossley had held a grudge against Chisale after he complained to the labour authorities.

Chisale had also lodged a case of malicious damage against Scott-Crossley with the police for burning his property after his dismissal.

In a bizarre twist, local media reported Scott-Crossley was married in a magistrate’s court on Friday morning shortly before he was sentenced.

A crowd had earlier demanded life sentences for Scott-Crossley and his co-accused outside the sittings of the court in the town of Phalaborwa, close to the Kruger National Park northeast of Johannesburg.— Reuters