Cape Town - A mentally-ill mother, who has been found guilty of the murder of her three week old baby boy in September, briefly appeared in the Western Cape High Court for the arguments in the case.
The 30-year-old dressed in a jeans and grey top, stared blankly ahead while the court heard that her teenage son who lives with his grandma, couldn't be located by a probation officer. The teen time and again sleeps at home and also washes taxis at a rank.
It is understood that the Eerste River mother had on 18 October 2017 murdered her baby boy who had sustained blunt force trauma to the head.
The accused’s mental health records were also made available to court where it came out that she was diagnosed with a mental health condition at the age of 19.
According to court documents, the accused gave birth to the deceased, who was her third child, at the age of 26.
Four days prior to the newborn's death, the accused had sought help for her mental health at the Eerste River Hospital. She was admitted for treatment and discharged the next day.
On the day of the baby’s death, the accused took a nap, while the deceased was in her care.
At approximately 1pm the afternoon, the deceased’s grandma went to check up on the mother and baby.
The grandma made the gruesome discovery and found the baby laying on his back on the bathroom floor with blood running from in his nose.
The accused was not in the house.
The police were contacted and it was later discovered that the accused had thrown her baby onto a bed in a violent manner days before, which led to her eventually killing him on 18 October 2017 after he sustain blunt force trauma to the head.
The case which has been on the role ever since, took a turn on Thursday when the disappearance of her teenage son.
According to the prosecutor the probation officer informed him that the teenage boy was difficult to locate.
The court also heard the the grandma who was looking after the teen, had informed the officer that she had no control over him.
The stern magistrate then instructed the state to refer the matter to social services.
“Although this is not part of this case, the court is the upper guardian of all minors. Please refer this particular matter to the social services.”
The case was then postponed until December 2 to give the magistrate time to go through statements, the social workers and probation officer’s report.
Arguments will commence then.