The woman who gained notoriety after being imprisoned for kidnapping Zephany Nurse and raising her as her own will be released on parole and placed under supervision for three years in a month.
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This follows the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board’s final decision to grant Lavona Solomon parole on Friday.
News24 reports that she will be released on August 18th, according to Candice van Reenen, a department spokesperson for correctional services.
Up until the time of her release, she will participate in pre-release programmes.
‘Thereafter, Solomon will be admitted into the system of Community Corrections and serve the remainder of the sentence until its expiry in 2026,’ Van Reenen added.
Solomon needed to go through additional evaluations as well as a victim-offender dialogue process for the purposes of restorative justice before she could be released, the Correctional Supervision and Parole Board decided in July of last year.
It was decided to release her after her profile was resubmitted earlier this month.
According to Van Reenen, the decision was influenced by a number of factors, including the offender’s response to development and treatment programmes associated with rehabilitation, the existence of support systems in the community, the probability of reoffending and the risk the offender may pose to the community or the complainant/victims.
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Zephany was abducted by Solomon in April 1997 when she was only three days old and he was found guilty and given a 10-year prison term in August 2016 by the Western Cape High Court. Shortly after Zephany’s mother, Celeste Nurse, gave birth to her, she was abducted from Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital. Solomon named her Miché.
She was reunited with her biological family through an incredible coincidence that involved her biological sister, Cassidy Nurse.
She and Cassidy ended up at the same high school and their resemblance sparked talk among their peers.
Eventually, it was established that she was indeed Zephany Nurse.
Written by Tauhira Ajam for Cape Etc.
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