Zephany trial: 'I was confused'

The woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse yesterday testified that she was simply ignorant of adoption laws.

The 51-year-old woman, who cannot be named, said she had been "a bit confused" when a stranger handed a baby over to her at the Wynberg train station in 1997.

Prosecutor Evadne Kortje asked her: "That doesn't happen every day: A baby given to you out of the blue."

The accused replied: "I was also a bit confused at that time."

Asked why she didn't tell police when she received the baby without papers, she said she was worried the police would lock her up.

In her plea explanation, she said that numerous attempts to conceive had ended in miscarriages and so she sought to adopt a child.

She said a woman she knew as "Sylvia" gave Zephany to her.

Sylvia supposedly told her "a young girl was not interested in keeping her baby and wanted to give her up for adoption".

She said she paid Sylvia R3000 for the girl, and for the fertility treatment Sylvia supposedly provided beforehand.

Kortje asked the accused why she trusted Sylvia with the adoption when she had failed to help her conceive.

She replied: "She was convincing."

The woman was arrested on February 26 last year after DNA tests showed she was not Zephany's biological mother. She was barred from seeing her.

Zephany was reunited with her biological parents, Celeste and Morné Nurse, last year.

Zephany's true parentage was discovered soon after her biological sister, Cassidy, enrolled at the same school, and their physical resemblance sparked an investigation.

It is alleged the accused snatched Zephany from Groote Schuur Hospital on April 30 1997.

The suspect has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children's Act.

Morné's uncle, Clarence Sergers, said after the hearing: "[Zephany] is so confused from all the stories she is hearing now. She doesn't know what to believe. We just want people to keep their hands away from other people's children."

The accused earlier told the court that she struggled to break up with her former husband. She claimed he was a drug addict who battered and raped her. Her ex attended court yesterday, refuting her claims and stating that she had "been desperate to have a child".