Guilty: Kidnapper who raised child as her own after snatching her from hospital

A kidnapper has been found guilty of snatching a newborn girl nearly two decades ago from a hospital and raising her as her own. The South African woman, who brought up the child for 17 years before she was caught, was convicted under kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws. The 51-year-old, who claimed she adopted the child not knowing she was stolen, will be sentenced facing a jail term of up to 10 years when she is sentenced in May. The child, now 18, was not in court in Cape Town to hear the verdict as she has been reunited with her birth family and was taking exams.

You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital. Your story if anything is a fairy tale and the court rejects it with the contempt it deserves.

Judge John Hlophe

The child, then named Zephany, was just three days old when she was taken from her sleeping mother’s hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The woman who took her registered the child as her own daughter in 2003 also changing her name and birth date. But her crime came to light when the girl’s biological sister befriended her at school because they looked alike and DNA tests revealed they were related. The biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, sobbed as the judge read the verdict on Thursday.

We ran around looking for the child in every floor of the hospital. The baby was gone. Nowhere to be found. I thought it was a joke

Celeste Nurse

baby kidnap