A guy was shown on camera receiving abortion drugs, which he then used to covertly tamper with a pregnant woman’s drink to induce a miscarriage.
Stuart Worby, 40, secretly added an abortion-inducing substance to the victim’s orange juice.
He was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault and using an instrument or poison to induce a miscarriage.
Worby, of Dereham, Norfolk, crushed a tablet of mifepristone into the drink of his victim then inserted another abortion drug inside her, after sexually assaulting her while she was blindfolded.
Within a few hours, she experienced a serious bodily reaction that included bleeding, vomiting, diarrhoea, and a high fever.
Portuguese national Nueza Cepeda was seen on CCTV giving Worby the drugs that he used to spike the victim.
The duo were seen meeting in a pub garden, where Cepeda gives a bag containing the drugs to Worby.
The victim of a sexual offence, who is entitled to lifetime confidentiality, miscarried at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
A team of detectives who investigated the crime described it as one of the most shocking cases they had ever seen.
Cepeda had obtained the drugs by calling a London clinic posing as a pregnant woman who already had a family and wanted to end her pregnancy.
Cepeda, 39, of Dereham, was sentenced to 22 months in prison with a two-year suspension after entering a guilty plea to providing an instrument to induce a miscarriage.
The police-released video also shows authorities at Worby’s residence, where he was taken into custody.
Worby acknowledged that he had illegally gotten the drug, but he denied ever giving it to the woman. After a post-mortem assessment, one of the medications was discovered in foetal tissue.
Initially, the victim thought she had miscarried spontaneously but contacted police when she saw messages on Worby’s phone to his friend Wayne Finney saying ‘It’s working’ and ‘There is a lot of blood’.
Following today’s sentencing Det Insp Duncan Woodhams who led the investigation described it as one of the most shocking cases he and his team of detectives had seen.
He said: ‘Our thoughts remain with the victim who has suffered greatly as a result of Worby’s merciless actions and the subsequent trial.
‘It is difficult to imagine a more despicable crime. This took detailed planning and manipulation of the victim to inflict such lethal violence on her unborn child.
‘Worby has shown no remorse and there is no mitigation. He wanted to exert control in the most heinous manner and has now deservedly been punished for it.’
The woman miscarried her healthy baby the next day when Worby finally agreed to take her to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, despite his first refusal.
As she lost her baby, Worby texted a friend saying, ‘It’s working’ and, ‘There is lots of blood’.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the victim said she felt she had ‘failed to protect my baby’. She said she had ‘gone from fertility clinic to fertility clinic’ and ‘being a mother was a dream to me’.
She added: ‘This pain will never leave me knowing that this baby could have been my only chance to be a mother in this lifetime. I haven’t been able to conceive and have another baby.’
Worby acquired two types of abortion drugs by convincing a friend’s partner to pretend she was pregnant so she could get prescribed them privately, and then give them to him.
He crushed a tablet of mifepristone into the drink of his victim – who was about 15 weeks pregnant – without her knowledge in what was described by prosecutors as ‘deliberate, well planned and callous’.
Worby, of Dereham, Norfolk, used deceit to have intercourse with the lady before inserting many pills of misoprostol, another abortion medication, into her.
Mr Justice Joel Bennathan jailed him for 12 years for administering poison or using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage, and a concurrent eight years for sexual assault by penetration.
At Norwich Crown Court Worby was also ordered to pay £10,000 compensation to his victim. He had denied both charges but was found guilty at an earlier trial.
Wayne Finney, 41, of Swaffham, Norfolk, the boyfriend of the mother-of-three, was found not guilty of purposefully inciting or aiding another person in committing a crime.
The woman who miscarried described her anguish at losing her baby in an emotional victim impact statement, saying she was now unable to have children after being diagnosed with an ovarian deficiency.
She said that her miscarriage had left her suffering ‘grief that will never heal’ knowing that she ‘had failed’ to protect her baby.
The woman said in her statement: ‘I keep thinking what I could have done to protect my baby, but I have the deep pain of knowing that I have failed.
‘This pain will never leave me, knowing that this baby could have been my only chance of being a mother in this lifetime.
‘Although I now have a wonderful partner, we have been unable to conceive. I have to face the knowledge that the only baby I could have had was lost.’
The victim described being cross-examined at Worby’s trial as ‘a horrible feeling’ which had made her ‘more upset’.
She added: ‘I had a healthy pregnancy and was looking forward to giving birth to a beautiful baby. Becoming a mother was a dream that I was always hoping for.’
The woman said she had been left suffering ‘relentless nightmares’ and sleepless nights and had been further traumatised by having to wait two years ‘to give my baby the right to have a funeral’.
The trial heard how the woman had found messages on Worby’s phone to Mr Finney which commented on the effect of the abortion drugs on her, saying ‘it’s working’ and ‘there is lots of blood’.
The woman realised then that she had not suffered a spontaneous miscarriage, but what was described by police as a ‘deceitful and planned termination’.
The court heard how Worby had convinced Cepeda to call a London gynaecology centre and inform them that she was expecting, had a family, and wished to abort the pregnancy.
His bank statement revealed he had paid her the £470 fee for the drugs and her consultation to have a medical consultation that resulted in the drugs being delivered to her home.
Despite being informed by the gynaecology facility that it was illegal to provide the medication to anybody else, CCTV captured her giving the packets to Worby on a table outside the George Hotel in Swaffham.
Prosecutor Edmund Vickers KC said it was ‘quite clear’ that the victim wanted to have her baby.
He said that a post-mortem found the abortion drugs in her baby’s body, and gave the cause of death as abortion drugs in the mother’s system.
Cepeda initially claimed that she did not believe the abortion drugs would be used with the consent of the victim.
The trial heard how she had made internet searches before getting her prescription for ‘abortion home remedies’ and ‘abortion home treatment’.
Andrew Oliver KC, defending Cepeda, who works as a cleaner, said she had only met Worby through Mr Finney and had acted ‘through a degree of pressure and panic’.
He added: ‘She has gone against her better judgement as a result of trying to help, although in a completely misguided way.
‘She knew the reasons why he was asking her to acquire medication. But she has been utterly conned by Mr Worby. He not only deceived (the victim) in the most cruel way, but she was also taken in by his lies.
‘She is devastated that she has played a part in the harm and suffering that this case has caused. She did not intend harm. She thought she was trying to help. It was misguided loyalty to someone who was a friend of her partner.
‘It has landed her in serious trouble and caused graphic misery for which she is truly sorry. She did not receive any financial or other benefit from the part she played. I accept she played a critical role.
‘She was a subordinate in this incident and did not think out the horrific consequences.’
Mr Justice Bennathan told Worby that he had been ‘anxious’ to terminate the woman’s pregnancy. He added: ‘You are a selfish man and you set about planning to abort the baby.
‘In the end, you used your friend’s partner to get abortion drugs. You must have known this was dangerous as the pills were designed for use in the early weeks of pregnancy.’
The judge added that ‘any normal person’ would be shocked to hear the victim’s impact statement.
But he told Worby, who has no previous convictions: ‘I am sure your thoughts are only about yourself as they always were.’
Worby asked if he could say something before being taken down, but the judge refused his request. Worby then added: ‘Thanks for your time.’
Mr Justice Bennathan told Cepeda: ‘Your actions have caused huge suffering and a great loss to another woman. I accept you only became involved due to the pressure or badgering of Stuart Worby.
‘I accept that you thought he might not go through with it, and that you feel remorse and pain about what happened.’
The judge also summoned her to do a rehabilitation activity requirement of 20 days and 40 hours of unpaid work.
Worby was given a concurrent 14-day jail sentence after he admitted having cannabis.
Twelve years is absolutely insufficient. This was a heinous and repulsive crime!
Her unborn child perished as a result of the poison he delivered. His sentencing ought to have been far harsher. This was not his choice to inflict a termination on her.
He put poison into her body without her knowledge and caused her and the foetus physical harm, which is not acceptable. He caused the termination of a baby, and potentially destroyed this woman’s likelihood of having another child. He should have been given a much harsher sentence.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 