Man Accused of Giving Pregnant Chiswick Woman Abortion Pills
She says he had wanted her to terminate baby she lost on Christmas Day
Darren Burke. Picture: Facebook
A civil servant is in court facing a charge that he tried to make a woman from Chiswick have a miscarriage.
Darren Burke, who works for the Home Office on an emergency services mobile communications programme, has been accused of accused of unlawfully supplying a poison to procure miscarriage and procuring miscarriage by poison.
The 43-year-old from Windsor, who is married to another woman with whom he has a child, was in a relationship with Laura Slade.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the couple had known each other for 15 years but had begun an affair in 2020.
When she became pregnant, Miss Slade decided she wished to keep the baby but she says Mr Burke had told her to get a termination because, if his wife found out, it would 'destroy his life'.
Miss Slade is alleging that he crushed up mifepristone pills, a medication which is prescribed by doctors to bring about abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, and gave them to her in a drink.
Mr Burke says that he had bought the pills for Miss Slade in case she ever had need of them.
The newspaper relates that on the evening of 4 December 2020, he came to Miss Slade's flat in Chiswick and went into the kitchen returning with a glass of orange juice. Miss Slade says that after drinking the juice she noticed a powdery resident at the bottom of the glass which she took to police the following day. Analysis confirmed that it was Mifepristone . Three weeks later she miscarried on Christmas Day. Mr Burke was arrested in February 2021.
Mr Burke has been given bail and a date is yet to be set for a trial at Isleworth Crown Court.
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April 27, 2022