A South African woman has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping a baby 19 years ago and raising the child as her own, according to reports. The 51-year-old woman was arrested in 2015 after people noticed an uncanny resemblance between the girl, Zephany Nurse, and another girl at school. DNA tests carried out by police then proved that the two girls were sisters. Judge John Hlophe told the defendant she had "betrayed" Zephany by her actions. The kidnapped girl's biological parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse, called her Zephany, but the name she grew up with has not been revealed to protect her identity. The convicted woman has also not been named for similar reasons. Local media have previously reported that Zephany does not wish to have a relationship with her biological parents and considers the woman who kidnapped her as her mother.
She has decided to continue living with her abductor's husband, whom she grew up believing to be her father. The 52-year-old Cape Town native, who remains anonymous and continues to deny that she kidnapped the little girl from her mother's hospital bed back in 1997.
The girl, known publicly as Zephany Nurse, was reunited with her biological parents, Morné and Celeste Nurse, in February last year after their second daughter Cassidy befriended Zephany at school.
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