Court to hear Joshlin Smith's traffickers' appeal against their convictions, sentences
The Western Cape High Court will on Tuesday and Wednesday this week hear to hear the appeals of Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn.
Missing girl Joshlin Smith's mother Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn have been handed life sentences for the disappearance of the child. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/EWN
CAPE TOWN - Joshlin Smith's traffickers believe the court has erred in sentencing them to life behind bars.
At the end of May, the missing child's mother, Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn, were handed life sentences for human trafficking and ten years for kidnapping.
Joshlin was six years old when she disappeared from her Middelpos home in Saldanha Bay in February 2024.
Attorneys for Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn, filed notices to appeal the high court's ruling and sentences, barely a week after sentencing was handed down in May this year.
Tuesday and Wednesday have been set aside for the court to hear the appeals.
Judge Nathan Erasmus is also expected to decide the fate of former-accused-turned State witness, Lourentia Lombaard.
Lombaard told the court that Smith sold her daughter to a sangoma for R20,000.
Meanwhile, the police's work is not yet done as their investigation and search for little Joshlin, continue.