Six years isn’t justice: Nurse family said after kidnapper appears for parole hearing
|Published
Miche Solomon on left and Lavona Solomon on right with Miche when she was just a little girl. FACEBOOK
Cape Town - Six years is not enough.
This is the view of the parents of Zephany Nurse, after parole hearings for Lavona Solomon began yesterday.
Solomon is imprisoned at Worcester Female Prison.
Following the parole meeting with the Nurse and Solomon families, the Department of Correctional Services said the parole board “deemed it necessary for Levona Solomons to undergo further interventions as part of her rehabilitation path. In law, the discretion to grant parole or a further profile, lies with the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board (except on cases involving lifers). Consequently, a decision was taken, affirming that Levona Solomons will need to undergo further assessments by specialists under the employ of Correctional Services, as well as a Victim Offender Dialogue process for the purposes of restorative justice.”
Solomon’s profile will have to be submitted again in July 2023.
“Critical to highlight, the decision of the CSPB is influenced by the offender’s response to development and treatment programmes associated with rehabilitation, the existence and quality of support systems in the community, the probability of re-offending, and the risk the offender may pose to the community at large and also the risk to the complainant.”
The prison is also the detention home to Najwa Dirk, who was convicted and sentenced for the murder of her musician husband, Taliep Petersen, and also to Dina Rodrigues, who was sentenced to life behind bars for her role in the murder of 6-month-old baby Jordan-Leigh Norton in 2005.
Solomon was convicted of kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children’s Act and was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2016.
The Department of Correctional Services Regional Head Lawrence Venter confirmed Solomon’s hearing. “I can confirm that she is scheduled to appear today (Friday). The sitting is currently under way.”
Morne Nurse said that they did not want to comment prematurely but confirmed that Solomon’s parole hearings did not sit well with them.
“Six years does not do it justice,” he said. “We are aware that the parole hearings are taking place. We will respond to how we feel after this has taken place because we want to see what the outcome is.”
Miche Solomon, also known as Zephany Nurse, told Weekend Argus it was confidential. “It’s a very personal matter.”
Three-day old baby Zephany was snatched by Solomon, a seamstress from Seawinds in Lavender Hill, at Groote Schuur Hospital in April 1997.
Seventeen years after the kidnapping, the Nurses found their daughter.
It had been their youngest daughter, Cassidy, who attended the same school as Miche and two girls resembled one another.
DNA tests later revealed Miche was, in fact, the Nurse’s long last daughter.
During the trial, it was revealed that Solomon had suffered miscarriages and was desperate to have a child of her own and that she wanted the baby so that her partner, Michael would marry her.
She denied stealing the infant and claimed a woman named, “Sylvia” had handed her the baby at Wynberg Train Station but this was dismissed as a fairytale by the court.
But Solomon kicked back on the claims, that it was not true while Michael said he never knew that Miche was not his biological daughter.
Zephany, who chose to use the name given to her by her kidnapper, is now 22 and published a book titled, Zephany: Two mothers, One Daughter a few years ago.
In the book, Miche details the day her mother (kidnapper) was sentenced: “I knew my mom was going to be sentenced that week, but I didn’t know exactly when.
“On the day, the minister came into the office I was sitting in and said, what was I feeling? Disappointed. Sad. Confused. And, I have to say, I was a little surprised.
“Because even after everything was said and done, I still had hope that my mom wouldn’t go to jail.
“I remember the day she was found guilty. At the time, I was writing my exams. I remember coming home and everyone was just sitting in the lounge, quiet.
“It honestly felt like someone had died that day. I went into the room and I burst into tears on my bed.”
Last month, the Nurse family’s documentary film, ‘Girl Taken’, which features parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, Zephany and Michael Solomon, the kidnapper’s husband premiered at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town.
During an interview with the Weekend Argus, Morne said the movie would for the first time show their true emotions.
The parole hearings and release of offenders in high-profile cases have been in the spotlight lately. Once such release was that of Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu, the two men convicted and sentenced for their role in the murder of Baby Jordan-Leigh and were granted parole and have been free for years.
Gwada, was released on parole in 2017, while Sigenu was set free in February 2018 after serving between 13 and 14 years behind bars for the murder.
Last year, the Department of Correctional Services confirmed Dirk was expected to begin parole hearings this year and did not respond to further queries this year whether it had begun already.