Judge’s brutal statement as mum who sold her six-year-old daughter for £800 is jailed for life

‘We could have provided for her better than her mother’

1 week ago

A South African court sentenced Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith to life imprisonment yesterday, May 29. She was found guilty of trafficking her six-year-old daughter, Joshlin Smith, who has been missing for over a year.

The court also convicted Smith’s boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis, and their friend, Steveno van Rhyn, for kidnapping and selling Joshlin in February 2024. Prosecutors said Smith accepted 20,000 rand (around £800) from a traditional healer, known as a sangoma, in exchange for the child.

Joshlin vanished from her home in Saldanha Bay, a coastal town northwest of Cape Town. It sparked widespread national attention, protests, and a major community-led search effort. The case has since drawn international news coverage. Despite the convictions, her whereabouts remain unknown.

via Executive Mayor Andrè Truter/ Facebook

During sentencing, Judge Nathan Erasmus delivered a statement, expressing not only sorrow over Joshlin’s disappearance but also concern over systemic failures that may have contributed to it. “The evidence indicated that Miss Smith, in particular, was in need of social services for a prolonged period,” he said, according to Jacaranda FM. “And I wonder, when her grandmother complained in 2016 to the Department of Social Development for a protection order. What access did she [Kelly] have when she sought support from the justice system? We failed.”

Smith had a long-term drug addiction, unstable housing, and a history of neglect, as told in the court. A social worker’s report described her life as being “in chaos”. And she had been unable to provide safe, consistent care for Joshlin from the beginning.

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Joshlin had briefly been in the care of a family friend, Natasha Andrews, who hoped to adopt her. “We could have provided for her better than her mother,” Andrews told the court. She explained that the plan fell through due to a lack of consent.

Police have pledged to continue their search for her. According to BBC, Western Cape Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile told local media, “We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are continuing day and night looking for her.”

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