'She looks like me, I felt she was my child'

09 March 2016 - 02:45 By Philani Nombembe

It was Zephany Nurse's forehead and light complexion that convinced the man who raised her that the little girl was his. But his delusion ended on February 26 last year when DNA tests proved that Zephany was not his biological child and his wife was arrested for kidnapping the girl when she was just two days old.He was testifying at his wife's trial in the Cape Town High Court yesterday. The couple cannot be named to protect Zephany. The woman, 51, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children's Act. She admitted to misleading her family into believing the child was hers."Her [Zephany's] forehead looked like [my wife's]," he said. "She is light in complexion, my colour. I believed she was my child and she looks like me."But under cross-examination by prosecutor Evade Kortje, the man said he had never seen his wife breastfeeding. He conceded that had his wife not been arrested, he might never have found out that the girl, who was brought up under another name, was not his child.Before the man was called to the witness stand, his wife apologised to Celeste Nurse, Zephany's biological mother, for the pain she had endured over the years."I am happy that they found the child," she said. "Celeste I am sorry. I did not take your child from your arms. I never went to Groote Schuur Hospital to steal a child."The state claims the woman snatched Zephany from the hospital on April 30 1997. The defence and the prosecution will present their final arguments today. Judge President John Hlophe will deliver his judgment tomorrow...

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