Kidnapping suspect in court
A 25-year-old woman arrested on Sunday for allegedly snatching a toddler from the Port Elizabeth beachfront last week, appeared briefly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Megan Diedericks – listed as a bush dweller from Walmer township in court documents – pleaded not guilty to a charge of kidnapping of a minor.
It is alleged Diedericks kidnapped the three-year-old Bethelsdorp boy on Friday after she struck up a conversation with the child’s grandmother on the beach.
The grandmother was waiting for the child’s mother at the beachfront near Something Good, in Summerstrand.
According to police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu, the two women had gone to buy liquor at Summerstrand Village before returning to the beachfront.
At about 6pm, Diedericks allegedly went to buy cigarettes at a nearby shop and took the child with her.
The two never returned and a case of kidnapping was reported the following morning.
Pictures of the child and screenshots of CCTV footage from Summerstrand Village identifying the child and Diedericks were widely circulated from the time the alleged kidnapping was reported.
After numerous calls were received by police from the public about possible sightings of Diedericks and the child in the Victoria Park Drive vicinity, detectives made a breakthrough on Sunday morning.
It was then they found Diedericks and the missing child in a shack deep in the bushes off Victoria Park Drive.
Naidu said at the time of her arrest, Diedericks claimed she could not find the grandmother after returning from the shop on Friday.
She was arrested after she could not give a reasonable explanation as to why she had not contacted the police.
On Tuesday, Diedericks first told the court she would represent herself in the matter, but after being informed she could apply for Legal Aid assistance without charge, she decided to appoint a legal representative.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge of kidnapping.
Prosecutor Wendy Plaatjie told the court on Tuesday the state would oppose releasing Diedericks on bail due to the seriousness of the charge and also because Diedericks did not have a fixed address.
The case was rolled over to Wednesday to allow the state to obtain profiles and confirm whether she had any previous convictions, pending cases or warrants of arrest to her name.