Sasha-Leigh killer's appeal dismissed

An appeal against his conviction by the man found guilty of the 2003 murder of Cape Flats school girl Sasha-Leigh Crook has been dismissed by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Moegamat Isaacs was serving a sentence of life imprisonment for murdering the eight-year-old girl.

Crook's body was found stabbed to death at a rubbish dump eight days after she disappeared. She was last seen talking to Isaacs on July 6, 2003.

He lived with his mother next-door to the girl's grandparents' home.

The State's case in the high court, which found him guilty, was built on circumstantial evidence.

Appeal Judge Mohammed Navsa said in his judgment, unanimous by a panel of three, that the high court below correctly found that Isaacs was an unimpressive witness during the trial and that he was "evasive and contradictory".

"The appellant's (Isaacs) counsel's warning to the very first witness that his client's memory was hampered by the fact that he had been under the influence of dagga at the time of Sasha-Leigh's disappearance, was contradicted by the detailed nature of his evidence," Judge Navsa held.

The SCA found that anyone would have thought that it was not only his memory that was affected, but also his perceptive powers at material times.

The court held that another negative feature of Isaacs' evidence flowed from his responses under cross-examination when he was questioned about timeframes.

Judge Navsa said a study of the court records revealed that Isaacs attempted to tailor his answers to State evidence and that he was not relying on his memory, but was resorting to reconstruction.