Stuart Worby jailed for secretly poisoning woman with abortion drugs - she miscarried her baby

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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, 40, 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.

Norwich Crown 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.

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Worby crushed a single 200m tablet of mifepristone into the drink on the night of August 3 without the woman’s knowledge or consent. He then inserted a number of tablets of misoprostol, another abortion drug, inside the woman after using deception to engage in sexual activity with her. Within a few hours the woman had a severe physical reaction and was admitted to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital the following day where she miscarried her 15-week-old baby. At the time she believed the miscarriage was unsuspicious, but later reported Worby to the police and he was arrested on August 5.

Stuart Worby has been jailed for sexual assault and forcing a pregnant woman to miscarry by covertly giving her abortion medicationStuart Worby has been jailed for sexual assault and forcing a pregnant woman to miscarry by covertly giving her abortion medication
Stuart Worby has been jailed for sexual assault and forcing a pregnant woman to miscarry by covertly giving her abortion medication | Norfolk Constabulary

Worby, of Malthouse Court, Dereham, Norfolk, obtained the drugs 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, 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 has been given 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. An empty blister back of mifepristone was recovered at home in his bin. The misoprostol packaging was never found.

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A mifepristone tabletA mifepristone tablet
A mifepristone tablet | Norfolk Constabulary/PA

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’.

Nicola Pope from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This is a heartbreaking case involving a woman who wanted to have her baby but was forced to have a miscarriage by Stuart Worby. He committed this heinous crime along with Nueza Cepeda, who helped him by illegally obtaining drugs that are used by women seeking an abortion.

“These drugs give women power and control over their bodies – but the victim was forced to take them without her knowledge or consent. Our thoughts remain with the victim of this horrific crime.”

Following the 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.

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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.”

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