D-day for accused in #ZephanyNurse case

Published Mar 10, 2016

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Cape Town - Western Cape High Court judge president John Hlophe is expected on Thursday to deliver his verdict in the case against a woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse almost two decades ago.

The kidnapping has captured the attention of international and local media.

Celeste Nurse was only 18 when she was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital to deliver her first child almost two decades ago.

On April 28, 1997, Celeste gave birth to a baby girl via C-section. The child was named Zephany Nurse.

In an emotional submission at the start of the trial, Celeste said her daughter was so beautiful that she reminded her of Simba in the Lion King with her “black mass of hair”.

Read the plea explanation here

Also read: #ZephanyNurse accused tells her story

The young mother was under heavy sedation when a woman, dressed in the hospital nurse’s uniform of maroon pants and an oatmeal top, entered the ward and took Zephany on April 30, 1997.

Celeste said that the question “Mommy, where is your baby?” was etched in her mind as she woke up to this enquiry from a nurse shortly after Zephany was snatched.

A frantic search ensued. The child’s father, 19-year-old Morné Nurse, was notified of baby Zephany’s disappearance while he was at work.

In submissions to court, he said he was crouching “in a foetal position” in the hospital hallway when he was approached by Shireen Piet, another mother in the maternity ward. Piet was one of the key witnesses in the State’s case.

In an effort to console him, Piet explained she had met the woman who took his child. She said the same woman had tried to snatch her daughter hours before Zephany vanished.

Piet testified that the accused had visited her several times in hospital over two days on April 29 and April 30.

Piet told the court that she borrowed money from the accused to make a call from the public phone, and while she did so she kept an eye on her ward. She said she saw the accused try to leave the ward carrying her own baby, but stopped her.

Read: I’m broken, says man who raised #ZephanyNurse]

Also read: #ZephanyNurse accused says sorry

Piet testified that the accused said the baby had been crying, but when she took her child it did not appear distressed.

The couple’s story grabbed headlines in 1997 as police and the public searched for the missing baby.

In an effort to keep Zephany’s memory alive, the couple would celebrate their baby’s birthday and light a candle for her. Little did the distraught young couple know that 18 years later, they would be reunited with their long-lost daughter.

It was in February last year that Morné, now a father of three, met an 18-year-old girl who bore a striking resemblance to his younger children. The girl, and one of Morné’s younger daughters, was enrolled at the same high school.

Morné described an instant connection to his daughter’s friend while they had lunch at a restaurant close to home.

It was only when the girl revealed her birthday that Morné confirmed his suspicions. She was born on April 30, 1997 – the same day Zephany had vanished.

He immediately collected evidence and presented his case to Hawks investigators.

After further investigation, a 51-year-old Lavender Hill seamstress was arrested in February last year for the kidnapping of Zephany.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect Zephany’s new identity, has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children’s Act.

After nearly three weeks of intense testimonies and shocking truths in the Western Cape High Court, Judge Hlophe will deliver his judgment on Thursday.

In closing arguments on Wednesday, Hlophe made it clear that he did not believe the accused’s claims and told her defence lawyer: “I have listened to her lies for days.”

Read: #ZephanyNurse accused lied, says judge

He said the evidence against the soft-spoken woman was “overwhelming”.

The accused has claimed that she miscarried her own baby in December 1996, and met a woman called Sylvia at the Tygerberg hospital who offered to help her with fertility treatment or an adoption process.

She paid an R800 deposit for a total cost of R3 000 and when the fertility tablets didn’t work she opted for adoption.

She further claimed that she arranged to meet Sylvia on April 30, 1997 to discuss the adoption process, but was instead met by a stranger who handed her a newborn baby and told her to go to Retreat hospital and phone Sylvia from there.

Despite “a bad feeling”, she took the baby, whose umbilical cord was still attached, and pretended to her partner and family that the child was her own.

The accused denied ever being at Groote Schuur hospital.

State prosecutor Evadne Kortje on Wednesday told the court that the accused’s version was full of “contradictions and adaptions”.

She called the accused a self-professed liar. “She distorted the truth as is her nature.”

Cape Argus and African News Agency

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