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'When can I plead guilty?'
15/03/2007 09:18 - (SA)
Amanda Roestoff, Beeld
Bloemfontein - A Free State teacher, who is accused of kidnapping a baby boy from Krugersdorp, wanted to know when she appeared in court on Wednesday, when she could plead guilty.
"Sorry, but I just want to know how it works? When can I plead guilty, your honour?" Aletta (Alta) Catherina du Plessis, 43, a mother of three boys, wanted to know from magistrate Joachim Nortje.
Nortje smilingly explained that the police first had to finalise the investigation before compiling a charge sheet, that she then had to get legal advice and that she could only then plead guilty.
Du Plessis, from the small Free State town of Reitz, was neatly dressed in a yellow cotton shirt and light-coloured pants and sandals.
Teaching English
She has been teaching English for the past three years at the primary school division of Reitz High School.
Her mother, Isabella Olivier from Roodepoort, was the only family member supporting her in court.
Olivier sat down in the front row as Du Plessis's name was called.
Du Plessis apparently pretended to be a social worker before kidnapping Cornelius Roets (three months) from the custody of his grandmother Anna Putter, 49, from Burgershoop, Krugersdorp.
She apparently asked Putter to buy cooldrink from the shop at the Engen filling station in Paardekraal Road before she left with the baby in her white Volkswagen Polo.
Information provided by the Reitz police station put inspector Peet du Toit, the investigating officer, on Du Plessis's tracks.
The police even searched for Cornelius in Cape Town.
Du Plessis was arrested at a holiday resort in Bela-Bela in Limpopo a few hours after she had left Reitz.
She would have joined Piet van Niekerk, 39, a wealthy farmer from Reitz, with whom she had an on-off relationship, according to residents from Reitz.
Released on bail
She only admitted that she had kidnapped the baby when she was at a doctor's consulting rooms, where the police had taken her and the baby.
She kept insisting that the "newborn baby" was her own. Police took her and the baby to the doctor to determine the baby's real age.
According to Reitz residents, Van Niekerk was devastated by the incident and "was in tears of shock and humiliation about what happened".
Van Niekerk was still on holiday in Limpopo.
Du Plessis was released on R3 000 bail.
She was expected to spend the rest of the week with her mother in Discovery, Roodepoort, before returning to Reitz on Friday. Her sons are respectively 11, 13 and 15-years-old.
The case was postponed until April 12. Outside the court, Olivier said: "I'm really tired. I don't sleep. All the ugly things have been said already."
Chris Swanepoel, the principal of Reitz High, earlier this week confirmed that Du Plessis was on unpaid maternity leave.
- Beeld
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