Cape Town foster mother sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for murdering nine-month-old baby

A 39-year-old foster mother has been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in the High Court in Cape Town for the murder of a nine-month-old baby.

Priscilla Morris pleaded guilty to the murder of baby Caswill Frans, two counts of child abuse and defeating the ends of justice.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Western Cape Spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, says Morris admitted that months of abuse led to the child’s murder.

The child’s body was found in a shallow grave in Vrygrond in December 2021.

Ntabazalila says the court also found Morris unfit to work with children and ordered that her name be recorded in the National Child Protection Register.

In the latest crime stats between July and September of this year, Police Minister Bheki Cele reported that police are investigating attempted murder dockets of 294 children and a further 1 895 assault GBH cases, with children being the most victims.

The crime statistics also indicated that about 558 children were killed in the country from April to the end of September this year.

Child abuse indictment to society

The Commissioner for Children in the Western Cape, Christina Nomdo, says continued violence against children is an indictment on South African society.

This after the bodies of two children, aged four and eight, were discovered in separate incidents in September.

Tamia Botha’s body was found at a nearby schoolyard in Paarl East while the body of an eight-year-old boy was found at Siqalo Informal settlement in Philippi.

Nomdo says child protection should be everyone’s responsibility.

In the video below, a report on the murders of Botha and another unidentified child: 

-Additional reporting by SABC News