Cape Town – Sentencing proceedings in the case of the woman convicted of kidnapping Zephany Nurse from Groote Schuur Hospital 19 years ago, were expected to continue on Monday.
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Zephany Nurse’s biological parents were in court for the sentencing Monday, but their daughter was not.
Judge John Hlophe was expected to hand down his sentence against the woman who was arrested in February 2015 after the teen’s true identity came to light when her biological sister Cassidy, who is four years younger, told her parents that a girl in matric at her school bore a striking resemblance to her and her parents. A police investigation and DNA tests showed that the two girls were sisters and that the new friend was the Nurse’s missing child.
Zephany’s biological parents, Celeste and Morne, were previous year reunited with their daughter for the first time since the abduction.
The judge said the crimes she committed were of a serious nature, but that he had taken her personal circumstances such as her age, previously clean criminal record and chronic conditions into consideration.
The name of the condemned girl isn’t being released to shield the victim’s identity, who has asked for her privacy to be honored.
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The younger girl told her parents, who met the older girl and immediately believed she was their long-lost baby. The 52-year-old will be sentenced in the Western Cape High Court today for snatching the infant from Groote Schuur Hospital in 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 under a false birthdate.
