Cape Town - A Lavender Hill woman accused of kidnapping a newborn baby 18 years ago, appeared Tuesday in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court where the case was transferred to the Western Cape High Court.
The woman, dressed all in black, looked down throughout the brief court proceedings, never once glancing back at the packed public court gallery where many of Zephany Nurse’s family were seated.
Zephany Nurse was born on April 28, 1997 by caesarean section at the Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town.
According to the indictment, on April 30, 1997 the accused befriended Celeste Nurse, the newborn baby’s mother and “convinced her to hand over her daughter so that she could sleep”.
Staff later woke Celeste up to inform her that her baby daughter was missing.
Despite a nationwide search, Zephany Nurse was only found nearly 18 years later after a chance encounter with her biological sister at the school they both attend in Cape Town.
The indictment further states that on March 3, 2003, the accused took the child to Malmesbury where “she falsely presented Zephany to all as her daughter”.
She allegedly took her to the Department of Home Affairs in Malmesbury where Wilma Hofmeyr was working as an official.
There, she received applications for registrations of birth and registered Zephany as her own.
On the application forms she filled out, she said the child had been born in Retreat on April 30,1997.
Hofmeyr allegedly “received the application and processed it accordingly”.
On February 25, 2015 it was discovered that the girl was in fact the missing Zephany Nurse.
The girl is currently in matric. Her biological sister started grade 8 at the same school as her this year. They struck up a friendship, and the younger sister told her parents about the matric girl who looked strikingly similar to her.
Celeste and Morne Nurse, believing it could be their long lost daughter, contacted police and after DNA tests were done, it was confirmed that she was in fact Zephany Nurse.
The discovery was made on February 25, 2015
Magistrate Joe Magele postponed the case to November 27 when the accused will appear in the Western Cape High Court for a pre-trial conference.
She is currently out on bail of R5 000 and is not allowed to have any contact with Zephany. The woman may not be named to protect the new identity of Zephany Nurse.
Her trial has been set down for February 22, 2016 and is expected to run until March 10, 2016.
ANA