The Western Cape High Court sentenced Priscilla Morris to 30 years imprisonment on Thursday, for murdering her adopted nine-month-old child, Caswell Joseph Frans.
Source: Western Cape High CourtThe court also declared the 41 year-old foster mom from Vrygrond, unfit to work with children, unfit to possess a firearm and ordered her name be recorded in the National Child Protection Register.
According to the court, she told them that the child’s
biological mother, Candice Frans, asked her to take care of him. Issues such as
struggling with parental responsibilities and not having shelter at the time
her child was one month and two weeks old, were the reasons for giving her
child away.
The court also heard that Morris failed to mention that she
had chronic health conditions and was on prescribed anti-depressants.
State prosecutor Advocate Evadne Kortje, argued in court that the cause of death was blunt force trauma and added that number of child murderers in the province is appalling.
“She subjected the deceased to various assaults during his
short life, and the cause of death of the deceased was multiple blunt force
trauma. The pain, suffering and agony of the defenceless baby is shocking,
horrific, and inhumane”.
“The normalisation of child murders in our country and
specifically in the Western Cape is shocking,” she said.
Morris has been convicted on two counts of child abuse, murder
and defeating or obstructing the court of justice.
She also signed a plea deal and sentencing agreement with the
state.
By Lulama Klassen
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