Johannesburg - Loretta Cook lured a pregnant Valencia Behrens to her house, cut open her abdomen and removed her baby.
So said State prosecutor Paul Schutte on Monday in the Gauteng Division of the High Court, sitting in Palm Ridge, adding that this was not a spur-of-the-moment action.
Schutte said this during the summing up of the State’s case, and argued that Cook should be convicted of the two charges she faced: murder and leaving an infant exposed.
Behrens died shortly after the ordeal on January 6, 2012.
Schutte said events indicated that the alleged murder was a culmination of many months of planning. Cook faked a pregnancy. She also knew that Behrens was pregnant and when her due date was.
Cook had allegedly lured her to the house with a promise of giving her baby clothes and a pram.
The newborn was found in a pool of blood on the cold floor tiles, the umbilical cord still attached to the uterus. The baby girl survived, but Behrens bled to death. A black plastic bag was found in her abdomen.
Cook denied any involvement in the matter and pleaded not guilty. Her defence is that she does not remember anything and that she fainted when she saw blood after Behrens died.
Schutte rubbished Cook’s defence on Monday.
“It is evident that her loss of memory and consciousness were staged. Even in her own admission, she did not faint but inexplicably first went closer to the deceased and touched her blood-covered body.”
Schutte also said Cook had “stubbornly” maintained during her trial that she was pregnant, yet doctors who examined her found this was not true.
“Although there is no onus on the accused to prove anything, she did not offer any explanation as to how it happened that the deceased was cut open (and the baby and the uterus removed from her body), while she (the accused) was the last person to see the deceased alive inside the house and the first person to see the deceased lying dead outside the house.”
Cook’s lawyer said it had to be kept in mind that Cook did not have any recollection that it was she who had committed “this horrific act”.
If she was to be convicted, she would forever ask herself questions as to where she committed the crime, advocate Carla van Veenendaal said.
When she said the matter was a complex one, Judge Lucy Mailula asked her: “Where is the complexity? She was the only one with the deceased at the time. It is for her to tell what happened to the deceased.”
Judgment will be handed down on Thursday.
The Star