After learning last year that the woman she knew as her mother had actually abducted her as a newborn 18 years earlier, Kamiyah Mobley has taken the unexpected approach of emphasizing her kidnapper’s perceived qualities.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, Mobley was found safe in South Carolina last January after she was taken from a Florida hospital just hours after she was born in 1998.

The woman who had changed her name and posed as her biological mother, Gloria Williams, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, however, Mobley said she does not consider the woman who raised her to be a dangerous criminal.

“It’s not like she tortured me,” the 19-year-old said.

Mobley explained that she does “feel like it was wrong” for the woman to steal her from her birth parents, but confirmed that she had forgiven Williams.

“I can sympathize with her, I’m not mad at her,” she said. “Of course I forgive her.”

As for Williams’ expected prison sentence, Mobley is hoping for the court to show compassion.

“I am certain that she’s going to get time but I’m hoping not very, very long,” she said. “I think they should be lenient.”

Mobley went on to say that Williams took care of her “very well.”

The teen’s defense of an accused kidnapper has reportedly taken its toll on her birth mother, with whom she is trying to build a relationship as an adult.

“The tears won’t stop,” Shanara Mobley wrote last year in a Facebook post. “I see my baby girl wanting this lady in her life and not me.”

The younger Mobley addressed the complication in the recent interview.

“It’s been harder for my mother to cope,” she said. “We are working on our relationship. I don’t like to define which one is my mother, I like to be respectful of both parties.”

As for her birth father, however, Kamiyah Mobley says she has struck up a fast relationship with Craig Aiken, his wife, and eight new half-siblings.

[Featured image: Kamiyah Mobley, Gloria Williams/Facebook]