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17/09/2012
8-Years For Woman Who Aborted Her 39 Week Pregnancy
A woman has been jailed for eight years for aborting her own baby in the final phase of her pregnancy.
35-year-old Sarah Louise Catt, of North Yorkshire, took a drug when she was full term, 39 weeks pregnant, to cause an early delivery.
She claimed the boy was stillborn and that she buried his body, but no evidence of the child was ever found.
Today a Leeds Crown Court judge said, Catt made a "deliberate and calculated decision" to end her pregnancy.
Catt, who already had two children with her husband, had a scan at 30 weeks confirming her pregnancy at a hospital in Leeds, the court heard.
Suspicions were then raised when she failed to register the birth weeks later.
The trial judge heard that Catt had been having an affair with a work colleague for seven years and that her husband was unaware of the pregnancy and was not consulted about her decision to have an abortion.
She maintained she had a legitimate abortion at a clinic in Manchester, but analysis of her computer revealed she had purchased a drug over the internet called Misoprostol from a company in Mumbai, India. The drug can induce labour.
She pleaded guilty in July to administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage.
She told a psychiatrist she had taken the drug while her husband was away and delivered the baby boy by herself at home.
Catt said the child was not breathing or moving and that she had buried his body but did not reveal the location.
During the trial the court heard the defendant gave a child up for adoption in 1999.
Later she had a termination with the agreement of her husband, tried to terminate another pregnancy but missed the legal limit and later concealed another pregnancy from her husband before the child's birth.
Mr Justice Cooke said Catt had robbed the baby of the life it was about to have and said the seriousness of the crime lay between manslaughter and murder.
(H)
35-year-old Sarah Louise Catt, of North Yorkshire, took a drug when she was full term, 39 weeks pregnant, to cause an early delivery.
She claimed the boy was stillborn and that she buried his body, but no evidence of the child was ever found.
Today a Leeds Crown Court judge said, Catt made a "deliberate and calculated decision" to end her pregnancy.
Catt, who already had two children with her husband, had a scan at 30 weeks confirming her pregnancy at a hospital in Leeds, the court heard.
Suspicions were then raised when she failed to register the birth weeks later.
The trial judge heard that Catt had been having an affair with a work colleague for seven years and that her husband was unaware of the pregnancy and was not consulted about her decision to have an abortion.
She maintained she had a legitimate abortion at a clinic in Manchester, but analysis of her computer revealed she had purchased a drug over the internet called Misoprostol from a company in Mumbai, India. The drug can induce labour.
She pleaded guilty in July to administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage.
She told a psychiatrist she had taken the drug while her husband was away and delivered the baby boy by herself at home.
Catt said the child was not breathing or moving and that she had buried his body but did not reveal the location.
During the trial the court heard the defendant gave a child up for adoption in 1999.
Later she had a termination with the agreement of her husband, tried to terminate another pregnancy but missed the legal limit and later concealed another pregnancy from her husband before the child's birth.
Mr Justice Cooke said Catt had robbed the baby of the life it was about to have and said the seriousness of the crime lay between manslaughter and murder.
(H)
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