South African sentenced to 10 years for newborn kidnapping

Some became suspicious when people realized that Zephany Nurse bared a striking resemblance to another girl at her school.

A 51-year-old South African woman has been sentenced to prison for 10 years for stealing a newborn baby named Zephany Nurse almost twenty years ago and raising her as her own.

In handing down the 10-year sentence, a judge in the High Court in Cape Town said the woman’s crime was premeditated and too serious not to warrant a jail term, South Africa’s News24 said. Her kidnapper raised her as her own.

Hlophe criticized the kidnapper for sticking to her story that she had bought the baby from a woman who told her that the biological parents did not want the child.

South African media reported Monday that Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town announced the sentence.

The kidnapper says she was “tricked”, being given baby Zephany at a train station.

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Morne, left, and Celeste Nurse, the biological parents of the South African born kidnapped child Zephany Nurse, embrace each other after court proceedings in Cape Town, South Africa.

They called the police, and DNA tests confirmed that the girl was indeed their child.

There have been bittersweet reactions after the verdict was announced, with Zephany’s biological grandmother wishing for a higher sentence and hoping Zephany will be able to develop a bond with her real family.

In a twist of fate, they were reunited with her a year ago after Zephany and
her younger biological
sister were enrolled at the same school and pupils remarked on how remarkably alike they looked.

The woman, who remained unidentified, was found guilty in March of kidnapping, fraud, and contravening the Children’s Act, reported The Guardian. “You have actually betrayed her” Times Live quotes him as saying.

Zephany, now 19, currently lives in Steenberg with the man she thought was her father.

The loyal husband of the kidnapper – who told court he had no inkling that the beloved girl was not his own – blew kisses down from the public gallery to his wife, wearing a black coat, and wept as she descended into the cells beneath the court room.