National
Trial against woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse to start─── 07:09 Mon, 22 Feb 2016
Cape Town - A woman from Lavender Hill, who is alleged to have kidnapped a newborn baby from Groote Schuur hospital and raised her as her own, is expected to go on trial in the Cape Town High Court on Monday.
Zephany Nurse was just two days old when she went missing on March 30, 1997. The woman, who cannot be named to protect the new identity of the teenage girl, has been charged with kidnapping, fraud, and contravening the Children’s Act.
According to the indictment, the accused befriended the baby’s mother and “convinced her to hand over her daughter so that she could sleep”. Staff later woke the mother, Celeste, to inform her that her baby daughter was missing.
Despite a nationwide search, the child was only found last year, living close to her biological parents and attending the same school as her younger biological sister.
In a twist of fate, her biological young sister started high school at the same school as her and the discovery was made after schoolmates commented on their striking resemblance.
Her parents became suspicious and contacted police. DNA tests concluded that she was indeed Zephany Nurse.
The trial has been set down to run until March 10.
ANA
