Man who crushed abortion tablet into woman’s orange juice causing her to lose baby jailed

Stuart Worby had sexually assaulted the woman in order to give her the medication

Stuart Worby, 40, has been jailed after poisoning the woman with an abortion tablet (Norfolk Police)

A man who crushed an abortion tablet into a pregnant women’s orange juice, which caused her to lose her unborn baby, has been jailed for 12 years.

Stuart Worby, 40, also gave the woman a number of other abortion tablets by using deception to blindfold her and engage in a sexual activity.

The woman, who is entitled to lifelong anonymity by law as the victim of a sexual offence, was 15 weeks pregnant when she miscarried.

Shortly after they were administered, she began bleeding and was sick in the bathroom, and attended Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after enduring hours of pain and blood loss and underwent surgery.

She then found messages on Worby’s phone to his friend Wayne Finney to say “it’s working” and “There is a lot of blood”, causing her to realise this had been a planned termination.

Edmund Vickers KC, prosecuting, said at Friday’s hearing at Norwich Crown Court that it was “quite clear” that the woman “wanted to have the baby”.

He had used deception to engage her in sexual activity in order to administer abortion tablets (Norfolk Police)

In a victim impact statement, read to the court by the prosecutor, the woman said she felt she had “failed to protect my baby”.

“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.

She continued: “I haven’t been able to conceive and have another baby.”

The woman said she had “gone from fertility clinic to fertility clinic” and “being a mother was a dream to me”.

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.

Upon his arrest, police found texts on his phone discussing abortion medication and a Google search for Misoprostol, as well as searches relating to whether a baby could survive an abortion.

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.”

He said that Worby’s “only mitigation is your previous good character”.

The judge also made a restraining order, barring Worby from contacting the woman indefinitely, and ordered that he pay her £10,000.

After his sentence was read out, Worby asked if he “could say anything”.

When told by the judge that he could not, Worby said “Thanks for your time” and was led to the cells.

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.

Simon Spence KC, mitigating for Worby, said it was “ultimately a selfish act”.

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”.