The state has closed its case in the trial against a woman accused of kidnapping three-day old Zephany Nurse almost nineteen years ago.
The Lavender Hill woman faces charges of kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children’s Act.
The state alleges that she snatched Zephany Nurse from her mother’s bedside in Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on April 30, 1997.
The baby girl had been born by caesarean section to Morne and Celeste Nurse on April 28, 1997.
Warrant officer Petro Coetzee earlier on Thursday told the Western Cape High Court that she first became involved in the case exactly a year ago, when Hawks detective Mike Barkhuizen asked her to accompany him to the accused’s house to execute a search warrant.
Petro said they arrived at the Lavender Hill house where they met the accused’s younger sister who stayed in a flatlet at the back of the plot.
They explained the reason for their visit and proceeded to ask her questions.
The accused’s sister told the police officers that the accused and her had been pregnant at the same time in 1996 and 1997.
Coetzee said the sister said she had given birth to her own baby in August 1997, and had shown them a photograph of Zephany Nurse as a toddler with her cousins.
Police seized the photograph and sealed it in a forensic bag.
Coetzee said the sister told them she had never visited the accused in hospital when she gave birth and that the accused had had gynaecological problems which she was being treated for at Groote Schuur hospital and Victoria hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town.
She also informed police of a miscarriage the accused had had and about a baby born to the accused called Yolanda who had died at about two months of age.
Coetzee said when the accused arrived she was “calm and composed”.
“She told us that the child in question is her child”.
Coetzee said Barkhuizen questioned the accused and when she told him that she had had the baby at the Retreat mobile maternity clinic, he produced records from that clinic. “Her name did not appear anywhere.”
The police officer further testified that the accused maintained that the child was her own, and was born in Retreat.
When Barkhuizen asked her why she had only registered her birth almost six years later in Malmesbury, she said that her brother had died that same year and “maybe that was why she did it then”.
Coetzee told the court that when Barkhuizen informed her that the child would not be staying at home that night, the accused showed emotion for the first time.
She testified that the accused started crying and said “leave her here until everything is over”.
Coetzee said they later met with the child who was brought by social workers from school to a place of safekeeping.
There the teenager was shown a photograph of herself technically enhanced by age progression American experts.
Coetzee said “her words were that was exactly what I looked like in primary school”.
The police asked her if she had any photographs of herself as a young child, and she then gave them permission to fetch a photo album from her bedroom.
Coetzee said they also collected an overnight bag for the girl which the accused had packed for her.
She testified that the accused was later taken to the hospital for DNA testing, and said that she had nothing to hide, insisting that she was the girl’s mother and that her husband was the father.
Earlier, an 85-year-old woman, Mary Lewis testified that she had lived near the accused in 1997.
She denied fetching her from the Retreat hospital on April 30, 1997 which contradicted the accused’s plea explanation.
In her plea explanation, the accused had said: “I informed Labeeqah that I had given birth to a baby girl. She told me that she would contact Aunty Mary to fetch me but I told her I already did. Aunty Mary then met me at the Retreat hospital and took me home.”
Two Home Affairs department officials also testified on Thursday.
Wilhemina Hofmeyer, who processed the child’s birth certificate, told the Western Cape High Court that she did not have direct contact with the accused as she worked in the back office.
She said the birth certificate was posted to the accused on March 3, 2003.
Hofmeyer said late birth registrations were not uncommon, but extra documentation such as a baptism certificate, clinic card or school documents, had to be handed in to the department.
She also told the court that grandparents could make applications for birth certificates, but must have an ID book and a certified copy of the mother’s ID book.
Adoptions were also not processed at Malmesbury, but were rather sent to the Pretoria head office, she said.
Manager of the Malmesbury Home Affairs office, Gerard Kotze, also told the court that when a child was registered late, the department required an affidavit that must be given under oath indicating that all the details furnished were correct.
He said a court order was needed for adoptions and those were then sent to Pretoria to be processed.
The trial will resume on Monday. Judge President John Hlophe warned the state and defence to be ready to proceed at “9 o’clock sharp”.
The defence is expected to call four witnesses, including the accused.
Outside court, Zephany’s biological father, Morne Nurse, told journalists: “We are quite happy with proceedings so far. We just have to wait and see how things turn out.”
He would not be drawn on the relationship that Zephany Nurse had with her biological family.
The girl’s real identity was discovered when her younger biological sister started at the same high school as her last year.
When classmates commented on the girls’ similar looks, the sister informed her parents, who became suspicious and contacted police.
DNA tests confirmed she was the child they had been searching for for almost two decades.
– African News Agency (ANA)
