Zephany Nurse kidnapper to hear her fate
The woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse will hear her fate today when judgment will be handed down in the Western Cape High Court.
Judge John Hlophe is expected to make a ruling in the case against the 51-year-old Lavender Hill woman charged with snatching the three-day-old infant in February 1997 while her mother slept.
The accused, who may not be named as it may result in the teenager's identity being revealed, has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children's Act.
According to the accused's testimony, she got the baby from a woman called Sylvia, who had been giving her fertility treatment in 1997 after she had miscarried.
Sylvia arranged for the baby to be handed to her at Wynberg station without her prior knowledge, the accused claimed.
She said she was surprised because she had expected to meet to discuss the adoption process.
She said Sylvia claimed to know of a woman who did not want to keep her baby because the pregnancy was unplanned.
The accused testified that the woman had said the paperwork would be arranged later and she had signed documents including an "adoption application".
She claimed to have never heard from Sylvia again.
Birth certificate
The accused said that six years later she received a birth certificate by post with the name she chose for the baby.
Hlophe, during closing arguments yesterday, said the accused had not given any credible evidence as to how she obtained Zephany, adding that he had "listened to her lies for days".
The State alleges the woman had kidnapped Zephany from the cot next to her mother's bed.
Morne Nurse, Zephany's biological father, previously testified that he collected evidence for a month after he met the teenager, when his daughter told him a girl at her school bore a striking resemblance to her.
After fetching his daughter Cassidy and the then 17-year-old from school in January 2015, he took the two friends to lunch, where she told him her date of birth - April 30 1997. This was the date on which his daughter was abducted.
When he told her she did not look like her parents and looked just like him and his daughter, she burst out laughing.
He backed off as he did not want to scare her, but "scrutinised" her Facebook account and printed photos of her as she had grown up.
Nurse said he sent a photo of the girl and her mother to witness Shireen Piet, who claimed to have seen the suspected abductor on the day Zephany was snatched from her sleeping mother.
When he asked Piet if she recognised the woman, Piet said she did.
DNA tests later confirmed the teenager was Zephany.
(File photo: Gallo Images)