Court hears baby Jamie's mother was 'child like' after car crash

Ten years ago a curator found that the mother of slain toddler, Jamie Faith Naidoo, was unfit to manage her affairs and would need assistance for the rest of her life.

The Chatsworth Magistrate's Court yesterday heard that 31-year-old Patricia Kershnee Ishwarlal had sustained head injuries in a car crash that affected her mental ability.

To support his application for a mental assessment, defence lawyer, Vijay Sivakumoor said a curator told the Durban High Court during a Road Accident Fund claim in 2004 that Ishwarlal would need "care and assistance for the rest of her life" and that she had "child-like tendencies in her speech".

Ishwarlal, a sex worker and drug addict, and her mother Salatchee Basanich, 55, have been charged with Jamie's murder.

The three-year-old's lifeless was found in her grandmother's bed in Chatsworth, south of Durban, two weeks ago.

Her body was covered in bruises, marks which resembled cigarette burns and she had sustained broken limbs.

Magistrate Busisiwe Mpungose yesterday ruled in favour of the mental assessment for Ishwarlal and her mother.

However, she refused to remand the women into custody at a police station following an application for a transfer from Westville Prison where the pair were allegedly assaulted by inmates.

Mpungose ordered that the women be kept in isolation until they are transferred to Fort Napier Hospital.

The matter was adjourned to January 7.

Outside court KwaZulu-Natal Social Development representative Nokuthula Khanyile said an investigation has been launched into the placement of Ishwarlal's four children.

Shortly after police rescued Jamie when her mother sold her for R100 on Durban's beachfront, the then six-month-old was taken to a place of safety where records state that she was flourishing.

Records show that Basanich wanted Jamie to be put up for adoption.

Despite Jamie's paternal grandparents requesting custody of her, the child was placed in Basanich's foster care in 2011.

Jamie's father Demitri van Vuuren was released from a Durban prison recently following a drug-related conviction and was living in the city centre at the time of her death.