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The Laerskool Kollegepark teacher who was arrested for the kidnapping of Amy’Leigh de Jager sent a series of WhatsApp voice notes to parents, saying that there were “sickos out there” and asking for money for “flowers and a hamper” for Amy’Leigh’s parents on the day of her kidnapping.
The 27-year-old teacher, whose name is known to News24, was arrested with a 40-year-old woman and 50-year-old man by members from the Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit on Wednesday night.
On Monday, four men snatched Amy’Leigh from her mother’s car at the school in Vanderbijlpark in Gauteng and drove off in a white Toyota Fortuner, News24 previously reported. They demanded a ransom of R2 million from Amy’Leigh’s father, Wynand de Jager.
However, no money was paid and the six-year-old’s kidnappers dropped her off between 2am and 2.30am on Tuesday in a street close to The Shakespeare Inn hotel in Vanderbijlpark.
A man and a woman took her to the Vanderbijlpark police station where she was reunited with her parents.
Shortly after the kidnapping, the teacher went out to comfort Amy’Leigh’s mother, Angeline, where she was sitting in her car, assuring her that she would keep her son, Jaydon, safe, parents told News24.
The two women appear to be close friends and they have posed together in various Facebook pictures, calling each other by the nickname “heksie” (little witch).
The accused teacher then sent a series of voice notes to a WhatsApp group for parents, saying she was “as shocked” as they were and asking them to pray.
In her first voice note to parents, the teacher says, in Afrikaans: “We are okay, everyone in my class is safe. [The kidnapping] happened outside the school… as they were getting out of the car. It was a white Fortuner… the registration number appears to be blurred. All we can do now is pray that she is safe, wherever and whatever. I promise you I am guarding your children with my life. I’ll kill someone, hey…
“I’m just as stressed as you are,” she continues.
In a follow-up voice note, she says: “All we can do is pray. That is all we can do. We can only ask that the Lord protects [Amy’Leigh’].
“The worst is that it was a white Fortuner. There are so many white Fortuners…they can be anywhere by now. Let us pray for her safety.”
The teacher then appeals to parents to donate money for some flowers or a hamper, which she intends to buy to comfort Amy’Leigh’s parents.
“What happened is terrible. You can’t imagine it.”
She then warns parents of the dangers of social media, urging them not to post pictures of their children online.
“One has to be so careful where we post [pictures of] our children. The problem is that social media is a bliksem. We post our kids on Facebook, we put them on our statuses, and we don’t realise that there are these sickos out there. You have to be so careful, you can’t take chances these days.”
The teachers and the others who were arrested are expected to appear in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
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