South African mother, two accomplices sentenced to life for trafficking six-year-old daughter
Raquel Smith and her boyfriend, Jacquen Appolis, alongside their friend Stevano van Rhyn, were each handed life sentences for their involvement in the February 2024 disappearance of six-year-old Joshlin Smith, who vanished without a trace.
A South African woman and two of her accomplices have been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter.
Raquel Smith and her boyfriend, Jacquen Appolis, alongside their friend Stevano van Rhyn, were each handed life sentences for their involvement in the February 2024 disappearance of six-year-old Joshlin Smith, who vanished without a trace outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town.
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The girl remains missing despite an intense and widely publicised search effort.
The trio's sentencing comes nearly six weeks after the trial's commencement, with 30 witnesses taking the stand to testify on the matter.
Sold to a traditional healer
One witness alleged that Joshlin was sold to a traditional healer, popularly known as a sangoma, who reportedly wanted her for her eyes and skin.
A local pastor also testified that he had overheard Raquel Smith discussing selling her children for 20,000 rand (about Sh144,538), and even said she might have accepted as little as $275 (Sh35,543).
On the other hand, the three suspects refused to testify or call any witnesses to defend them.
While issuing the orders, Judge Nathan Erasmus noted that he did not consider any one of the suspects to be more or less culpable than the others. Therefore, the judge gave them all the same sentence, life imprisonment for human trafficking and 10 years for child kidnapping.
"On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. On the kidnapping charge, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment," the judge ruled.
No emotion
Smith and her accomplices did not show any emotion when the judge issued the ruling.
Tension ran high in the courtroom beforehand, with outraged community members calling for the trio to face severe punishment, insisting it was well deserved.
In a heartfelt appeal before sentencing, Joshlin's grandmother, Amanda Smith-Daniels, urged her daughter to come forward with the child's whereabouts, adding that the girl's disappearance has left her family broken.
"I don't feel that any sentence they get will bring my grandchild back," she told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
According to global data gathering firm Statista, the number of kidnapping offences recorded by the South African police in 2024 amounted to over 17,000 offences, indicating a peak in the period under review.
In comparison to the number of kidnapping cases in the preceding year, this number increased by over 11 per cent.
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