It is unlikely that Laurie Frazer will again commit conspiracy to kidnap, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) heard on Thursday.
The Bloemfontein court heard argument in the case of Frazer, who made headlines in 1997 for failed attempts to get custody of his adopted child and later for plotting to kidnap the baby.
Frazer was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on a charge of conspiring to kidnap the baby from his adoptive parents in Malawi.
The Johannesburg High Court confirmed Frazer’s four-year sentence in April 2003.
”The appellant is not a dangerous criminal,” Frazer’s legal counsel, Michael Miller, told the SCA.
He asked the court instead to consider a suspended sentence with community service and/or a fine, adding that Frazer, the biological father, has no contact with the child.
Miller said Frazer is unemployed due to the case hanging over his head.
”The client, however, feels that he is an employable person who can earn a salary,” Miller told the court.
Marius Oosthuizen, for the state, argued that the court should not find too lightly in favour of Frazer.
”The punishment should reflect the severity of his actions that led to a kidnapping,” Oosthuizen said.
The baby boy was found unharmed three days after the kidnapping, and returned to his adoptive parents.
How it all started
The case relates to baby Timothy, born in 1995 during Frazer’s relationship with musician Adri Naude, who put him up for adoption.
Naude brushed aside Frazer’s attempts to adopt the baby and consented to an adoption by a family from Malawi in February 1996.
Frazer turned to the Johannesburg High Court, which set aside the adoption after he argued that the Child Care Act did not consider his rights as father.
The constitutionality of a Section in the Child Care Act was also referred to the Constitutional Court. It held that the Section was unconstitutional, but that Frazer could not benefit from the judgement.
Naude and the adoptive parents, however, successfully lodged an appeal in the SCA against the setting aside of the adoption order.
Frazer again approached the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal.
The Constitutional Court refused the application without considering the merits of the case, on the basis that it was in the interest of the child that the matter be brought to an end.
Ten days after the Constitutional Court’s first judgement, the child was kidnapped in Malawi.
Frazer and two accomplices were arrested shortly afterwards and charged.
The allegation was that during the period October 1996 to February 1997 they unlawfully conspired to commit the crime of kidnapping.
They were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of between two and four years.
The SCA reserved judgement on Thursday. — Sapa