CAPE ARGUS
Reporter – Norman Joseph
POLICE investigators probing the murder of Sasha-Leigh Crook, 8, declined to let the suspect’s attorney see the case docket, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court has heard. When 25-year-old Mogamat Yusuf Isaacs appeared in court yesterday, his attorney, Keith Gess, told magistrate Wynand Marais that he would be making an urgent appeal to the State to see the charge sheet, its annexures and the police case docket. Isaacs is facing charges of kidnapping and murdering Sasha-Leigh two weeks ago. Gess, who replaced Legal Aid Board lawyer Bantu Nyembezi, said he would get information “from the State” to see whether the evidence against Isaacs was strong enough. “They did not allow us to have a look at teh case docket, which is vital for me,” Gess said. Yesterday the case was postponed to August 4. Gess told Marais: “On that date we will make a bail application.” At 0.05am yesterday the provincial police’s interventuion unit, headed by Superintendent Peter Woodman, slipped Isaacs into the court through a rear entrance gate at the court that is not often used by the police. A small crowd that gathered near the main entrance gate was not aware that Isaacs had arrived. Most of the people had gone inside Court 4 to find seats. Isaacs appeared in court, but then prosecutor Christenmus “Thinus” van der Vyfer, a senior State advocate of the Director of public Prosectuions office, was not there. So Isaacs was taken down to the holding cells again. Van der Vyfer arrived, and told the court that the charge sheet was temporarily missing. Isaacs, wearing a fez, jeans and a blue tracksuit jacket, was brought up into the court again. Just before Isaacs appeared in court, Sasha-Leigh’s parents, Michelle and Lionel Crook, and the girl’s grandfather, Michael Heneke, arrived under police guard, and were seated in the front row. Unlike Isaac’s first appearance, there were no disruptions by people in the packed gallery. Wynberg police crime intelligence officer Elizabeth van Rooi and Inspector Levinia Pienaar headed the police guard inside the court, and kept the doors closed to prevent more people from overcrowding the courtroom. But every time the door opened, people standing at the door craned their necks to catch a glimpse of Isaacs. isaacs’s family also attended his court appearance yesterday. Sasha-Leigh, a Grade 3 pupil at Thornton Road Primary School, went missing on July 6 from her grandparents’ home in Adrian Road, Ottery. She had been spending the holidays with her grandparents. Her body was found Monday last week near a sportsfield in Pelican Heights. Her face had been disfigured.