Man and woman accused of illegal abortion plead guilty to charges

It comes after mother-of-three was recently jailed for obtaining drugs to have abortion after legal cut-off in case that caused major backlash

West Midlands Police said a pedestrian and a cyclist have died following a series of collisions in Coventry on September 3 (PA) (PA Archive)

A man and a woman accused of charges linked to illegally aborting a baby have pleaded guilty to charges against them.

Elliot Benham, 24, of Swindon, pleaded guilty to obtaining a poison to deliberately trigger a miscarriage at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday.

While Sophie Harvey, 24, of Cirencester, pleaded guilty to hiding the birth of a child and getting rid of the baby’s body.

The pair previously denied the charges - with the offences alleged to have occurred from 1 September and 1 December in 2018.

According to the BBC, Prosecutor Anna Vigars KC said a trial must still go ahead, explaining: “Nobody involved in this case is approaching it in an unsympathetic way.

“The difficulties and the sensitivities are paramount and we will remain open to discussion.”

Ms Vigars continued: “It is accepted that circumstances change and we don’t want to make things more difficult in what is a very sensitive situation.”

A trial is due to go ahead on separate charges of concealment of the birth of a child, as well as the discarding of the body. Ms Harvey will also stand trial over obtaining poison to cause a miscarriage.

In September 2020, local police searched locations in Swindon and Cirencester as part of the investigation.

Abortions can legally be carried out within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales. While medical abortions can only be conducted up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, surgical abortions can be performed up to 23 weeks and six days into a pregnancy. Abortions can only be performed after the 24-week mark in very restricted contexts.

The abortion in this case is alleged not to have been performed by a health professional, while the pregnancy is allegedly over the 24-week mark.

It comes after a mother-of-three was recently jailed for obtaining drugs to have an abortion after the legal cut-off in a case that caused a major backlash among MPs, campaigners and members of the public who argued it was not in the public interest to imprison her.

Carla Foster, 45, was sentenced to 28 months in prison in June after illegally procuring drugs to terminate her pregnancy during lockdown when she was between 32 to 34 weeks pregnant.

But she was released from prison in July after winning an appeal against her sentence - with the Court of Appeal reducing her sentence to 14 months and ruling it should be suspended.