Man who spiked pregnant woman’s orange juice with abortion drug jailed
A man who spiked a pregnant woman’s orange juice with abortion drugs causing her to lose her unborn baby has been jailed for 12 years.
Stuart Worby, 40, crushed a tablet of mifepristone into the drink on the night of August 3, 2022.
He then inserted several tablets of another abortion drug – misoprostol – inside the victim while she was blindfolded under the guise of ‘kinky sex’.
The woman had a severe physical reaction within a few hours and was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital the following day where she lost her baby at 15 weeks.
Edmund Vickers KC, prosecuting, said at Friday’s sentencing hearing at Norwich Crown Court that it was ‘quite clear’ the woman ‘wanted to have the baby’.
In a victim impact statement, read to the court by the prosecutor, the woman said ‘being a mother was a dream to me’.
‘This pain will never leave me knowing that this baby could have been my only chance to be a mother in this lifetime,’ she said.
‘I haven’t been able to conceive and have another baby.’
Mr Vickers said Worby’s offence was ‘deliberate, well-planned and callous’ and he was helped to obtain the abortion drugs by his friend’s partner Nueza Cepeda.
He said Worby paid £470 to book an appointment for Cepeda with a gynaecology centre in London.
The appointment took place in summer 2022 and a prescription was made for the two abortion drugs together with painkillers, the prosecutor said.
Worby was found guilty following an earlier trial at Norwich Crown Court of administering a poison or using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage.
He was also found guilty of assault by penetration, and on Friday he admitted to possession of cannabis that was found as police arrested him.
Sentencing Worby on Friday, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told him: ‘You are a selfish man and set about aborting the baby without (the woman) knowing.’
The judge also made a restraining order, barring Worby from contacting the woman indefinitely, and ordered that he pay her £10,000.
Cepeda, 39, of Dereham, pleaded guilty to supplying an instrument to procure a miscarriage.
The judge said: ‘I accept you only became involved in this due to the pressure or badgering of Stuart Worby.’
He sentenced the mother-of-three to 22 months in prison suspended for two years. He also ordered that she complete 40 hours of unpaid work.
Andrew Oliver, mitigating for Cepeda, said the cleaner acted out of ‘misguided loyalty to someone who was friends with her partner’.
He said Cepeda had no previous convictions, was ‘devastated she’s played a part in the harm and suffering that’s been caused’ and ‘didn’t receive any financial or other benefits for the part that she played’.
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