Baby abductions raise concerns

BACKDOOR ADOPTIONS

- GENEVIEVE SERRA

THE latest kidnapping of a baby in Cape Town may have raised the lid on a syndicate of backdoor adoptions, where the perpetrators pretend to be sponsors, healthcare workers or social workers, as they prey on unsuspecting mothers.

During a heart-wrenching interview with the Cape Argus yesterday, the mother of nine-day-old Mogamat Imaad Sharmar Imaan Sharmar, 25, from Strandfontein, also known as Britney Brandt, poured her heart out, begging her son's kidnapper to return him back home safely.

The infant was born on June 19 at Mitchell's Plain District Hospital in Lentegeur, weighing 2.1kg.

He is the second child born to Imaan, who embraced Islam and has a three-year-old daughter.

On Saturday, June 28, Imaad was kidnapped by a coloured woman, believed to be between the ages of 35 and 40 years old, who fluently spoke Afrikaans.

The young mother said she had gained the woman's trust in May when she was 35 weeks pregnant, as the suspect had visited her home using a possible alias and pretended to be a sponsor.

Dressed in nursing attire, the suspect was keen to register Imaan to a programme that assisted mothers who had given birth with counselling and skills.