A
woman who stole a baby 18-years-ago has finally been caught after she
kidnapped another woman's daughter and raised her as her own.
Celeste Nurse (2nd L), the mother of a South African girl who was abducted after birth in 1997 (AFP Photo/Stringer)
A woman charged with stealing a newborn baby 18 years ago appeared
briefly in a South African court Monday, in a case that came to light
only when school pupils noticed a startling resemblance between a
student and a new girl.
The case in the Cape Town High Court was postponed until Tuesday by
Judge John Hlophe after prosecutors said they needed time to formalise
agreements on a number of admissions by the defence.
The accused 50-year-old woman has been on bail since March last
year after DNA tests confirmed that the new girl at the school and a
17-year-old final-year student were in fact biological sisters.
The new girl was the daughter of Celeste and Morne Nurse, whose
first child was snatched as a three-day-old baby named Zephany in April
1997 from Cape Town's Groote Schuur hospital.
Police were alerted after Zephany's parents became convinced the older girl was their missing baby.
The parents looked on from the public gallery as the alleged kidnapper sat emotionless in the dock.
Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a
couple of kilometres (miles) of their kidnapped daughter, while
celebrating her birthday every year and never giving up hope of finding
her.
Zephany, who was renamed by her new family, is now approaching her
19th birthday after reportedly being raised with love and kindness by
the accused woman and her husband, who she believed were her real
parents.
Her whereabouts have been kept secret since she requested
protection from the media storm over the case, a spokesman for the
social services department told AFP.
The accused woman cannot be named, as that would reveal Zephany's identity after she was kidnapped.
In a statement read on her behalf by a lawyer shortly after Zephany discovered the truth about her past, she said: "I
want to say thank you to all the people who supported me through this,
for continuously praying and never giving up on looking for me.
"Under the circumstances I am doing fine."
Her biological parents told reporters at the time that their joy at finding her overwhelmed any desire for revenge.
The suspect reportedly had a series of miscarriages before allegedly stealing Zephany from the hospital.
She has been free on bail on condition that she does not contact potential state witnesses -- including her husband and Zephany.
She faces a minimum of five years in jail if convicted of
kidnapping, but prosecutors had indicated earlier that they could be
open to a plea bargain after consultations with both sides.
AFP
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