A Cape Town woman has testified that the accused in the Zephany Nurse kidnap case tried to snatch her newborn infant on April 30, 1997.
Shireen Piet is testifying in the trial against the 50-year-old Lavender Hill woman, who cannot be named to protect the new identity Zephany Nurse, now a teenager.
The woman faces charges of kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children’s Act, for allegedly kidnapping three-day-old Zephany Nurse almost nineteen years ago from Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and then raising her as her own.
Piet told the Western Cape High Court that she had given birth by Caesarean, on April 28 1997, the same day that Zephany Nurse was born to Morne and Celeste Nurse.
On April 29 and April 30, she said a heavily pregnant woman visited her several times whilst she was recovering in hospital.
“I could see she was heavily pregnant, her tummy was very big,” she told the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Piet said the woman told her she was waiting to have a Caesarean, but that her doctor was busy in a meeting, and that she was tired.
She also recalled the woman telling her she had tried to get pregnant for 18 years and that her first pregnancy had miscarried.
Piet said she borrowed phone money from the woman and while using the public pay phone she kept an eye on the ward where she had left her baby.
She testified that she saw the woman leaving the ward with her child while she was on the phone and told the person she was talking to she had to go.
“I went to her and said give me my baby. She gave me my child and said she had been crying. I took the baby and she didn’t look like she had been crying.”
Later on April 30, she said she heard a man sobbing loudly. “He said my child is gone.”
“I said there was a woman who nearly took my child.”
Piet was then questioned by police and helped draw up an identikit of the woman who is believed to have snatched Zephany.
Almost eighteen years later, Zephany Nurse’s biological father, Morne, contacted Piet.
Piet said he told her he would send her a photo on Whatsapp and call her 10 minutes later, which he did.
“I said this woman on this photo is 100% the woman who was walking with my child.”
Judge President John Hlophe then asked the witness if that same woman was in court. Piet then pointed to the accused.
She further told the court that Senior Superintendent Mike Barkhuizen later took her to an ID parade where she identified the accused.
A video of the ID parade was shown to the court.
The State is expected to call a further three witnesses to testify on Wednesday and will then close its case.
Judge Hlophe, who insists on punctuality, said: “Come rain or shine, we are closing the State’s case tomorrow.”
The defence will call two or three witnesses on Monday.
Zephany Nurse was reunited with her biological parents in February last year when her younger sister started high school at the same school as her.
Classmates remarked on their striking resemblance, and when the younger sister told her father, he became suspicious and informed police after meeting Zephany himself.
DNA tests confirmed that she was Zephany Nurse.
Outside court, Zephra Nurse, the teenager’s biological paternal grandmother told ANA: “We are just happy it’s coming to an end. I don’t really have contact with her now, but I’m just glad we found her”.
The teenager is not allowed to have any contact with the accused who is currently out on R5 000 bail.
African News Agency