#ZephanyNurse: Psychologist comes under fire

The State prosecutor has ripped into the testimony of a clinical psychologist testifying in mitigation of sentence for Zephany Nurse’s kidnapper.

Cape Town - The State prosecutor has ripped into the testimony of a clinical psychologist who testified in mitigation of sentence for the woman convicted of kidnapping baby Zephany Nurse from her hospital bed, almost two decades ago.

Mark Steyn, who spent about 16 hours in Pollsmoor Prison interviewing the woman who has been convicted of the 1997 kidnapping, was testifying for the defence in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.

The Lavender Hill woman, who cannot be named to protect the new identity she gave Zephany Nurse, was in March convicted for kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children's Act. Each charge carries a possible 10-year sentence.

The kidnapper snatched three-day-old Zephany from her mother's hospital bedside on April 30, 1997. The infant had been born by caesarean section to Morne and Celeste Nurse on April 28.

State prosecutor Evadne Kortje on Monday accused Steyn, during cross examination, of falling victim to the manipulations of the accused, not being objective, being inexperienced and presenting a “flawed” report.

Kortje said Steyn had not dealt with the accused's manipulative nature. “She lied to her husband, she manipulated him. She lied to her sisters, she manipulated her loved ones.”

Kortje also said Steyn had not done a risk assessment to determine whether or not she would re-offend. “You did not deal with deterrence, retribution and rehabilitation and you did not test for cognitive distortions,” Kortje said.

Cognitive distortions are the justifications that people make to convince themselves they are not guilty. They include denial, blame and minimising. The prosecutor pointed out that the kidnapper feels that she is only guilty of being a good mother to Zephany, and therefore was likely to re-offend.

Steyn said the accused felt an injustice was done to her and was angry with the media for “telling lies about her”. He conceded that she showed no remorse, but detailed a history of regular beatings by her first husband, abandonment by her mother at the age of 12, and a pregnancy at the age of 16 where the baby died at five weeks old.

Kortje said Steyn was trying to create sympathy for the accused in a bid to “paint her as the victim”. She challenged him over repeatedly calling Zephany Nurse the name the accused gave her, saying he was starting to think like the accused, and lacked objectivity.

In the report, Steyn also referred to Zephany as the accused's “de facto” daughter, and was forced to apologise after being confronted over this by the prosecutor.

Kortje said: “This court found that she is Zephany Nurse and is not in any way the kidnapper's daughter. The accused keeps giving you her version which was rejected by this court.”

The kidnapper's husband sat on one side of the public gallery, while Zephany's biological parents and their family sat on the other. There were repeated murmurings of approval as the prosecutor picked apart the psychologist's testimony.

In January last year, Zephany Nurse's biological sister started high school at the same school as her. When their classmates remarked on their striking resemblance, she went home and told her father. Morne Nurse began his own investigations and reported his suspicions to police the following month.

The Hawks arrested the Lavender Hill woman who had raised Zephany as her own in February last year. DNA tests confirmed she was indeed the child the Nurse family had been searching for for almost two decades.

African News Agency