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August 2, 1999- The horrific killing of an earl's nephew in a Zimbabwe safari park was blamed tonight on an injured lion turned into a 'man-eater' by starvation.
Public schoolboy David Pleydell-Bouverie, 19, was dragged from his tent as a pride of lions attacked a camp in the remote Matusadona National Park in western Zimbabwe during the early hours of yesterday.
The young Briton, working as an assistant for a safari firm as he fulfilled a dream to spend a year in Africa, was savaged in the darkness as terrified tourists and guides ran for their lives. His grieving father, Richard, the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, described the killing as the "most unbearable and appalling tragedy". It came just weeks before his son was due to return to Britain to start university. Police investigating the attack said it was carried out by a well-known pride in the Matusadona park - which bills itself as the reserve with the highest concentration of lions in Africa. A rogue ageing lioness, subsequently shot dead by the hunters, was believed to have led the 1am attack in a desperate attempt to find food after suffering a broken leg. A spokesman for the wildlife police service in the capital, Harare, said tonight: "This particular pride is one that is often seen by tourists in the area and there has been no history of man-eating attacks in the past. "But the group was led by an old she-lion who was struggling with a broken leg. "We believe she attacked out of hunger - the camp provided a relatively straightforward target." The safari worker, whose uncle is the 71-year-old Earl of Radnor, had recently extended a gap year to allow him to stay longer in Zimbabwe after leaving top public school Harrow last year. 
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