Man jailed for 12 years over forced abortion

A man has been jailed for sexual assault and forcing a pregnant woman to miscarry by covertly giving her abortion medication.

In the first successful prosecution of its kind Stuart Worby, aged 40, of Malthouse Court, Dereham, appeared at Norwich Crown Court today (Friday December 6) and was sentenced to 12 years for administering a poison or using an instrument to procure a miscarriage and eight years for sexual assault against the victim to be served concurrently. 

The jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict following a two-week trial in October.

The court had heard the victim lost her baby at around 15 weeks in August 2022 having unknowingly and without her consent been given the medication.

Worby administered two drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. An empty blister back of mifepristone was recovered at home in his bin. The misoprostol packaging was never found.

He obtained them with the help of Nueza Cepeda who rang a London clinic posing as a pregnant woman who already had a family and wanted to terminate her pregnancy.

Cepeda, aged 39, of Walnut Drive, Dereham admitted her role in the deception namely producing an instrument to be used with the intent to procure a miscarriage. She was today handed a 22-month suspended sentence. 

Her boyfriend Wayne Finney, 42, of Station Street, Swaffham, denied intentionally encouraging or assisting in the offence and was found not guilty at trial.

Worby accepted he had obtained the medication unlawfully but denied he ever gave it to the woman. One of the drugs used was found in foetal tissue following a post mortem examination.

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 lead 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.”