By Court Reporter
A Delft woman has confessed to making a prank call to the father of three-day-old baby Zephany Nurse, who went missing from Groote Schuur Hospital 13 years ago, and has been fined R5 000 or two years behind bars.
The Bellville Regional Court also on Wednesday ordered that Glenda Doubell, 50, remain under house arrest for three years and complete 300 hours of community service over 18 months.
Doubell, who was out on R2 000 bail, pleaded guilty to attempted extortion for trying to solicit R5 000 from Morne Nurse for his daughter's return.
Doubell had on July 16 last year consumed alcohol, and during the early hours of the next day called Nurse, telling him she knew where his daughter was, and that he should meet her to exchange the money for his child.
They arranged to meet at KFC in the Town Centre in Mitchells Plain, but Doubell never showed up.
She became "scared", the plea agreement states.
Three days later police arrested Doubell, who lived in the same street as the infant's grandmother.
Doubell admitted that she had known the Nurse family for "quite some time" and that, while visiting Nurse's mother-in-law, they "regularly" discussed Zephany's disappearance on April 30, 1997.
"(Doubell) admits (that), despite consuming alcohol, she was still in her full sound mind and sober senses and appreciated the wrongfulness of her actions," the court papers read.
In sentencing Doubell, the court acknowledged that she was a first offender, lost her job due to the case, and had displayed "genuine remorse" for the pain and suffering she caused the Nurse family.
"(Doubell) has also spared the State the expense and inconvenience of a protracted trial."
Factors that counted against Doubell were that she capitalised on Nurse's vulnerability and faced a serious charge.
Doubell also has to submit to rehabilitation programmes set out by the commissioner of correctional supervision, and is prohibited from drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
Doubell has said she does not know where baby Zephany is.