A young nanny who kidnapped a newborn baby after faking an elaborate and delusional pregnancy to fool friends and family has been jailed for three years. Video supplied.
The family of an 11-day-old baby kidnapped from their home by a nanny have released the CCTV footage of the moment their child was snatched.
Nadene Faye Manukau-Togiavalu, 21, who was working for a family and caring for their baby girl at their Epsom home in Auckland, was today jailedfor three years for kidnapping, burglary, criminal harassment, making an intimate visual recording and dishonestly using a document.
The baby's father said he woke on the morning of the kidnapping to a "parent's worst nightmare".
"Our 11-day-old baby had been kidnapped."
The CCTV footage shows the moment Sydnee Shaunna Taulapapa (Toulapapa) leaves the house with the baby in her arms.
The baby's father said that early on the morning his daughter disappeared "the world fell out from underneath me".
He recalled Manukau-Togiavalu yelling: "The house has been robbed! The house has been robbed!"
"In my heart I knew straight away something was wrong and Nadene was not telling the truth," the father said.
Chilling fooatge from home security cameras show moment baby was kidnapped from Epsom home. Photo / Supplied
He explained that he discovered the back door of the home open "and our precious baby was not in her cot".
The terrifying possibility that his baby was gone sent him into a panic and he frantically began searching the streets looking for a person with his daughter.
"Nadene kept saying she had no idea what had happened," he said.
Later, while reviewing CCTV, the father said, "it was like watching something from a horror movie".
"I saw a female wearing a balaclava, peering through our back window.
"She exited through the same door carrying bags and the most precious thing in our lives."
The security footage shows the kidnapper use a remote control to open the gate. The young woman in the balaclava was Taulapapa.
"Where's our baby, Nadene?" he asked her.
About 80 police launched a major search after the baby girl was taken.
She was found about six hours later, but the father said "at this moment I thought we were about to be told they had found her but she was no longer alive".
The first-time mum, recovering from a medical procedure, explained how she and her husband trusted Manukau-Togiavalu, who was recommended to them by a nanny agency.
"She had a good CV and presented herself as experienced and competent," the father said.
The name of the agency, also duped by Manukau-Togiavalu, is suppressed.
The agency shut down its nanny placements after the kidnapping and hired an investigator to review all its nannies.
Before the kidnapping on August 9 last year, Manukau-Togiavalu hosted a hoax baby shower and wore a pregnancy suit as part of her con, social media photos provided to the Herald show.
Her infatuation developed as she claimed that after giving birth her baby was adopted.
Then, enlisting the help of her cousin Sydnee Shaunna Taulapapa (Toulapapa), 18, Manukau-Togiavalu devised a plan to kidnap the then 11-day-old baby from the Pah Rd home.
Taulapapa pleaded guilty to kidnapping and burglary in the High Court at Auckland and was sentenced in April.
She was discharged without conviction but ordered to complete 400 hours' community work and pay $2000 to the baby's parents if they accepted it or to a children's charity.
However, the court heard today that the Solicitor-General has appealed Taulapapa's sentence.
Manukau-Togiavalu also pleaded guilty to orchestrating the baby snatch in the Auckland District Court during April.
