THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA JUDGMENT

2______________________________________________________________ORDER______________________________________________________________On appeal from:court of first instance).The appeal is dismissed.Western Cape High Court, Cape Town (Ndita J sitting as______________________________________________________________JUDGMENT______________________________________________________________NAVSA JA (Bosielo JA and Seriti AJA concurring)[1] On Sunday 6 th July 2003, Priscilla and Michael Heneke, the dotingmaternal grandparents of eight year-old Sasha Leigh Crook, watched theirgranddaughter play in and around their house at 47 Adrian Road, Ottery, CapeTown. They could not have imagined that later that day she would disappear andthat eight days thereafter, during the early hours of Monday 14 July 2003, herbody would be discovered in the vicinity of a rubbish dump in Muizenberg.[2] The appellant, Moegamat Yusuf Isaacs, was convicted in the Cape HighCourt (Ndita AJ, sitting with two assessors) of Sasha Leigh’s murder. Theconviction was based on circumstantial evidence and on statements he hadallegedly made to his mother, Mrs Fatima Isaacs, in the presence of police. Thequestion in this appeal, which is before us with the leave of this court, is whetherthe State had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant had murderedSasha Leigh.[3] At material times the appellant, together with his wife and mother, residedright next door to Sasha Leigh’s grandparents, at 45 Adrian Road, Ottery. He isthe last known person to have seen her alive. It is common cause that some timeafter lunch on that fateful Sunday, Sasha Leigh had gone over to the front of the