Woman walks free from court after illegal abortion charges discontinued

By Rod Minchin, Reporter19th December 2024News EnglandAbortion, Courts / Justice, Gloucestershire, News England, Pregnancy

A woman has walked free from court after prosecutors accepted she did not illegally abort her baby.

Sophie Harvey, 25, had previously stood trial accused of procuring her own miscarriage when she was 19.

Prosecutors had alleged she took the medication after learning she was at 28 weeks and five days gestation – meaning she could not get a legal abortion in England as she was beyond the 24-week cut-off.

Harvey and her boyfriend Elliot Benham always accepted they had purchased abortion pills online.

But Harvey insisted she had never taken them and had instead given birth to a stillborn child in the bathroom of her home in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in September 2018.

The couple had stood trial at Gloucester Crown Court (pictured) in May of this year, but the jury was discharged by a judge following an application by their lawyers who cited inaccurate reports of the proceedings by the BBC.

Harvey described to the court how she was left upset and confused after going into labour at home and wrapped the baby in a towel before placing it into the household waste bin.

Following the collapse of the trial, prosecutors had sought a new trial, and a date had been fixed for February next year.

But at a further hearing on Wednesday, a new charge of conspiracy to procure a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage was put to them which they both admitted.

Harvey, of St Mary’s Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and Benham, of Wingfield, Swindon, Wiltshire, had previously admitted a charge of concealing the birth of a child.

Other offences, which they had denied, including procuring a poison, procuring a miscarriage by poison and perverting the course of justice, were ordered to lie on file.

In mitigation, Tom Godfrey, representing Harvey, said: “It is a great shame that this matter has not resolved itself much, much earlier.

“The investigation took over five years and it was not until 2023 that she was charged, which on any view is an unacceptable amount of time.

“This prosecution has had an enormous and profound effect upon her.”

Clare Evans, representing Benham, said: “He knows this was an unavoidable set of circumstances which they then dealt with very badly.

“It is something he finds very difficult to talk about.”

Passing sentence, Judge Ian Lawrie KC, the Recorder of Gloucester, imposed 18-month community orders on the pair.

In addition, Harvey was given a mental health treatment requirement, while Benham was told to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. Both were told to pay a £114 surcharge.

Passing sentence, Judge Lawrie said: “I am sadly too familiar with your case. I am familiar with the background and what took place.

“It has been a long and painful journey.

“The baby was stillborn in a bathroom and a life was sadly lost. The loss of that life was a tragedy, and that small child was treated by being wrapped in a towel and placed in a bin.

“What it means is there was an absence of compassion and humanity.”

The judge added: “The impact upon your lives has been traumatic and I am sure this will continue for some time. If you can, and I doubt it, put it all behind you and get on with your lives.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said it decided not to pursue charges alleging that Harvey had illegally aborted her baby following “careful reflection”.

A spokesperson said: “We recognise the profoundly painful circumstances surrounding this case, which our prosecutors have approached with sensitivity and care.

“Our duty is to apply the law set by Parliament impartially – especially when dealing with the most difficult or complex decisions.

“The defendants have pleaded guilty to two offences, and after careful reflection we have concluded that it is not in the public interest to pursue further charges.”

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police said: “This was a really sensitive and difficult case, which has been upsetting for all involved.

“After concerns had been raised to police by a healthcare professional, we had a duty to establish what had happened and carry out a full and impartial investigation.

“We then provided evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service for them to decide whether a prosecution should be brought.

“Two people have pleaded guilty to offences and have been sentenced in court.”

Sophie Harvey case reignites debate on abortion laws, say campaigners

The prosecution of Sophie Harvey and Elliot Benham has reignited the debate about England and Wales’s historic abortion laws dating back to the Victorian era.

The pair pleaded guilty to an offence under a 163-year-old law – the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

Harvey, then 19, and her boyfriend Eliott Benham, admitted conspiracy to procure a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage.

Although abortions were legalised in England and Wales following the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act, terminations remain illegal after 24 weeks’ gestation, save for very limited circumstances.

The current laws have fallen under the spotlight following recent high-profile prosecutions.

Bethany Cox was accused of using poison for an at-home abortion in 2020 but the charges were dropped earlier this year.

Cases against two other women have also been discontinued in the last 18 months.

Meanwhile, Carla Foster was jailed last year for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

Her sentence was later reduced by the Court of Appeal and suspended, with senior judges saying that sending women to prison for abortion-related offences is “unlikely” to be a “just outcome”.

Since Ms Foster’s case last year – but before Parliament was dissolved for July’s General Election – MPs had tabled amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill that could have seen the abortion laws changed.

Among them was one by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson – now a Home Office minister – that would have removed the threat of prosecution against women who act in relation to their own pregnancy at any stage.

The then Conservative Government had faced calls to repeal sections of the 19th-century law after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019.

MPs were set to consider the amendments on June 4 during the second day of the Bill’s report stage but that fell to the wayside after Parliament was dissolved.

Campaigners for women’s rights said the Harvey case showed the law needed changing and she should never have been prosecuted in the first place.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “Restricting women’s access to abortion puts our health and lives at risk.

“No woman should be forced to continue a pregnancy against her will. It can never be in the public interest to prosecute in cases like this – abortion is healthcare and women seeking healthcare must not be criminalised.

“The law that allowed this to happen is so old it predates women’s suffrage – it is in no way fit for purpose in modern-day Britain.

“It wasn’t written by us, and it doesn’t work for us.

“We call on Parliament to ensure no more women are prosecuted for abortion and to ensure that our abortion law is reformed to progress our existing rights – not remove them.”

Dr Jonathan Lord, from the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, said: “The law is causing life-changing harm to vulnerable women and girls.

“What’s happening, the horrific way the women are being treated – including those with premature labours and natural later pregnancy losses – is a national scandal that we’ll look back on with horror and question how such cruelty could ever have been allowed?”

Organisation co-chairwoman Dr Tracey Masters added: “It can never be in the public interest to prosecute women for ending their own pregnancy, and we stand with all the other organisations who call for the law to be urgently changed.”