Baby peddler dies on eve of judgment in her fraud case

Adoption scammer Letitia van den Berg died on Sunday night, the day before she was due to hear the verdict in the fraud case in which she cruelly used babies to swindle childless families out of money, causing untold emotional harm to her victims. This morning, a death certificate confirming her demise was submitted to the High Court in Pretoria before the matter was struck from the roll without judgment being handed down. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit represents several of the victims and was instrumental in ensuring the case was properly investigated and enrolled for prosecution.

The unit represents Sonia Leithgöb, Kimberley Kruger, Erica Franks, Shannon Staniforth and Sandra Pretorius.

Van den Berg offered services as an adoption social worker, charging prospective adoptive parents, many unable to have children, for various services in the adoption process. She did this when, in fact, there was no child to adopt, or a child had been offered to the hopeful parents despite the biological mother not having given consent for adoption. In some cases, she would string the prospective adoptive parents along with sonar scans of their soon-to-be child, while asking for funds to pay the non-existent biological mother’s hospital bills, only to tell them later that the biological mother had suffered a miscarriage or died. Her offences date back to 2014.

Some of the hopeful mothers and fathers prepared baby rooms and bought toys, bottles and prams for their bundle of joy that never arrived, leaving them devastated by the loss of a child they believed would soon be theirs. At least one would-be mother started taking medication to induce lactation in anticipation of her adopted baby’s arrival, only to have her hopes of becoming a mother cruelly dashed.

One of the mothers whose hopes of adopting a child were shattered is Sandra Pretorius, who says that while Van den Berg is dead, the emotional devastation she caused remains, and her callous and cruel deeds must not be forgotten. “I think we must still remember all the victims and all the pain and suffering she’s caused. Today was a very emotional and unexpected event in the case. We waited very long for justice and that’s now been taken away from us. I needed to hear the word ‘guilty’. I needed peace. I needed to hear that she will be sentenced for what she’s done to us,” she said.

She praised AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit for being by their side throughout the process. “We’ve been so supported, not just in the case, but emotionally. It’s been just a wonderful experience in that regard. We approached AfriForum because we couldn’t get enough support from the prosecutor and the investigating team. We needed some extra assistance and therefore AfriForum was absolutely excellent in that regard,” she said.

Another victim, Shannon Staniforth, said hearing the judgment and the court’s findings against Van den Berg would have been an important part of finding closure after this devastating chapter in her family’s life. “It leaves us with no justice, it leaves us with no answers. We have gone through this for four and a half years. We set up baby rooms for children that never came home. We grieved the deaths of babies that had allegedly died. We had to fight a legal battle, had child welfare in our home. It was unreal what we had to live through to fight for our daughter, whose images she used to scam other families and this woman now gets away with it again. Revenge and justice to me are not the same thing. We’ve waited four and a half years for closure,” she said.

Staniforth said that while she was grateful for the opportunity to testify against Van den Berg, being denied a verdict had robbed her and her family of the chance to hear the court formally acknowledge the suffering they had endured. “It was hearing what she had done read out in court, and the guilty verdict read to us that she is guilty on these charges, (but) we had the opportunity to testify against her. That was something that needed to happen. We had the opportunity for a judge to sit and look you in the eye, acknowledging what she put us through,” she said.

Barry Bateman, spokesperson for the unit, said the unit stood by the families’ side after the State abandoned its duty to care for and support victims of crime.  “The State’s failure to communicate with victims of crime creates secondary trauma when all they need is to understand the process and when they will eventually get justice. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit not only ensured this case was properly investigated and ultimately prosecuted, but we also supported these women throughout the trial. 

“It is unfortunate that the accused died because it has denied the victims the opportunity to hear a court validate their suffering and confirm that Van den Berg’s cruel and calculated conduct would not go unpunished. But at least they got to tell their stories to a court, and they were heard. The unit will continue to support victims of crime who are routinely abandoned by the organisations that claim to be victim-focused,” Bateman said.