South African woman jailed for kidnapping newborn Zephany Nurse 19 years ago

Zephany Nurse was snatched from hospital when she was just three days old

Celeste Nurse, right facing, Zephany’s biological mother, had her newborn snatched from her while she lay asleep (AP)

A South African woman who snatched baby Zephany Nurse from hospital nearly 20 years ago has been sentenced to 10 years in jail.

The woman had pleaded not guilty during her trial, claiming she believed she had legally adopted Zephany 19 years ago. She was found guilty of kidnapping in March this year.

At her sentencing on Monday Judge John Hlophe in Cape Town said the crimes committed by the woman were serious, but that he had taken into account her previously clean record and other mitigating circumstances in deciding the sentence, according to News24.

Zephany’s biological parents Celeste and Morne Nurse attended court on Monday for sentencing, but their daughter did not.

Zephany was three days old when she was snatched from a Cape Town hospital while her mother was asleep in April 1997, state prosecutors said.

The kidnapper then defrauded authorities by registering the child as her own daughter in 2003 under a false birth date, prosecutors added.

Zephany, who is publicly known by a different name which has been protected by the courts, was reunited with her biological parents Morne and Celeste Nurse last year, and a 51-year-old woman was arrested.

Zephany’s true identity was discovered last year when she was found to bear a remarkable resemblance to a girl she had befriended at school.

After suspicions were raised, a police investigation and DNA tests proved that the two girls were sisters.

Local media has previously reported that Zephany considers the woman who kidnapped her as her mother and does not wish to have a relationship with her birth parents, the BBC reported.

Additional reporting by AP