Woman Convicted in Baby Contract Killing
Pastor Dale Morgan
Woman Convicted in Baby Contract Killing
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By CLARE NULLIS
The Associated Press
Monday, May 7, 2007; 2:04 PM
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A woman was convicted Monday of hiring a hit
squad to murder her lover's baby daughter, ending a trial that had
dominated headlines for months with details of South Africa's first
known contract killing of an infant.
Dina Rodrigues was found guilty of murder for orchestrating the June
2005 killing of 6-month-old Jordan-Leigh Norton _ her then-boyfriend's
child from a previous relationship.
Cheers erupted as the verdict was read in the packed Cape Town court
room, where Norton family supporters wore pink in sympathy with the
victim. Jordan's body, still dressed in pink, was found in a drain in
Pretoria.
"We are glad for the decision," the baby's grandfather, Vernon Norton,
told the South African Press Association, adding that the family hoped
Rodrigues would be sentenced to life in prison at the next hearing in June.
The case has riveted South Africa _ where an estimated 1,100 children
are killed each year _ in part because both the baby and Rodrigues were
white and from privileged backgrounds. Most cases involving violence
against children involve black and underprivileged defendants and victims.
High Court Judge Basheer Waglay also convicted four men of murder and
robbery in the case.
The four had been hired by Rodrigues for a total of $1,500 to commit the
crime, and posed as delivery men to gain access to the home of Jordan's
grandparents, prosecutors said.
They stabbed the infant in the neck and tried to make the murder look
like a botched robbery, prosecutors said.
Rodrigues' lawyer argued that it had been an attempted kidnapping gone
wrong.
But the judge rejected the argument, noting testimony from the baby's
father, Neil Wilson, that Rodrigues had phoned him to tell him she got
rid of the baby.
Cases such as Jordan's have led to a recent campaigns drawing attention
to the problem of violence against children.
Also Monday, five youths made a brief appearance in a Soweto court to
face charges of raping, stabbing and stoning to death 14-year-old Thato
Radebe, whose body was found on waste land.
"We have never had to deal with this level, intensity or numbers of
crime against children," Childline head Joan van Niekerk said, noting
her charity receives about 1 million phone calls from children reporting
abuse each year. "Every year I start the year by saying it cannot get
worse, and it does."
The newly formed Protect Our Children campaign donated 200 teddy bears
Monday to a Pretoria police station to be given to young victims. Last
week, the Solidarity trade union collected more than 1,100 bears _ to
mark the annual number of child murders in this country of 43 million _
after the body of an 8-year-old girl was found in a sewer.