South African Woman Who Stole a Baby from Hospital and Raised Her for 19 Years has Been Jailed (Photo)

Celeste Nurse (2nd L), the mother of a South African girl who was abducted after birth in 1997 (AFP Photo/Stringer)

 

A South African court on Monday handed down a 10-year prison term to a woman who kidnapped a newborn baby from her sleeping mother in hospital 19 years ago, local media reported, AFP reports.

 

The 52-year-old woman was sentenced by a judge in the High Court in Cape Town who emphasised the seriousness of the crime before handing her the sentence.

 

The report of the kidnap was widely circulated after news of the incident broke. The kidnapping victim, who her family named Zephany Nurse, was taken from a maternity ward at Groote Schuur Hospital in 1997. Her kidnapper raised her as her own.

 

The woman was exposed in February 2015, when her younger biological sister began attending high school and pupils pointed out her remarkable likeness to a final-year student. The younger girl told her parents about the older girl who immediately swung into action after recounting an incident in the past how her child got missing.

 

The judge said the crime was premeditated and too serious not to warrant a jail sentence. Zephany, who is now said be pregnant, was raised under a different name and has shunned the media spotlight on the case.