Durban mom in court for suffocating her 7-year-old son

A Morningside‚ Durban‚ woman accused of smothering her 7-year-old son to death sobbed as she stood in the dock at the Durban Magistrate’s court on Thursday.

Megan Prins‚ 34‚ was arrested at a guesthouse in the plush Umhlanga suburb last week after allegedly drugging and suffocating her son‚ Sloan‚ in one of the suites.

Prins cut a morose figure‚ weeping and downcast. She had bandages on her wrists and neck‚ covering wounds from a self-inflicted attempt on her life.

Prosecutor Vaneshree Moodley told the court that Prins had been seen by the district surgeon‚ who determined that she undergo further psychiatric evaluation at the Fort Napier Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

She said that the murder of the child had been premeditated‚ and that the state would oppose the mother’s release on bail.

Prins was remanded in custody while the state facilitated a bed for her evaluation at Fort Napier.

Magistrate Mohamed Motala said that demands on the public health system meant that finding space at the hospital for psychiatric evaluation sometimes took upwards of six months.

“There is a significant demand on this hospital [Fort Napier] and because of that there will be a wait while the state organises your stay there‚” he said to Prins. “For now you will be remanded in custody.”

Prins had shuffled from the dock‚ and broke down as she walked toward the cells.

“I’m alone in prison‚” she exclaimed as her family reached from the gallery into the stairwell to the holding cells.