Kidnapper raised baby Zephany Nurse as her own in South Africa

A judge in South Africa has found a woman guilty of kidnapping a newborn baby from a hospital nearly two decades ago and raising the girl as her own.

Judge John Hlophe, in Cape Town, convicted the woman of kidnapping, fraud and contravening child protection laws, said Eric Ntabazalila, spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority.

The judge revoked bail and the woman will be detained until her sentencing on May 30, he said. The judge mentioned in court that she could be looking at a 10-year prison sentence, said Mr Ntabazalila.

State prosecutors said the woman snatched a three-day-old baby from her sleeping mother’s hospital bedside in Cape Town in April 1997. The prosecution also said the woman defrauded authorities when she registered the child as her own daughter in 2003, also changing her birth date.

The defendant, now 51, pleaded not guilty to all three charges. During the trial she testified that she adopted the child.

Zephany Nurse was snatched from a maternity ward in Cape Town in 1997. Unravelling her mystery disappearance only began by chance in 2015 when the Nurses’ second child, Cassidy, started at a new high school — and friends commented on the uncanny resemblance between the two girls

“I didn’t know the baby was stolen,” the woman testified, according to the African News Agency (ANA).

The girl was reunited with her biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, last year after their second daughter befriended a girl at school who looked remarkably like her. After a police investigation and DNA tests, that new friend turned out to be their missing child.

The family had been living only miles away from their daughter.

The biological parents sobbed as the judge read the verdict, ANA reported.

Zephany’s father, Morne Nurse, is surrounded by reporters as he leaves the court in Cape Town

The girl, now 18, was not in court and is taking high school final exams. The judge ordered that neither the defendant nor the girl may be identified.