Man jailed for 9 years for forced abortion
A 28-year-old man, Adeleke Adelani, has been jailed for nine years for causing the unlawful termination of a woman’s unborn baby after he forced her to take five abortion pills on St Valentine’s Day, 2020, in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
He told the woman that he would “beat that kid out of you tonight” if she didn’t take the abortion pills, despite her protests. His victim told the court that she “will always grieve” her child – and “always remember what was taken from me”.
The court heard that Adelani met the woman on Snapchat, and that she had became pregnant by him in October 2019, but that baby had been aborted when they both agreed to seek abortion pills from a doctor.
However, she became pregnant again in January 2020 and wanted to keep this baby. Adelani then persuaded her to come to his home in Donegal under the belief that he wanted to also keep the baby, and then locked her into a room after forcing her to take abortion pills he had obtained in Dublin.
Adelani, who now has a string of convictions, was born in Nigeria but came to this country with his mother and was brought up in Clonsilla. The court heard he had been involved in drug misuse.
Judge John Alymer said Adelani had carried out an extreme act of physical and emotional violence, and ignored his the victim’s obvious distress, RTÉ News reported.
A conversation, which had been recorded on Adelani’s phone, between Adelani and the victim where he was telling her that he was forcing her to have an abortion, was played to the courtroom. He forced her to take five misoprostol 200mg tablets.
“Take this, I’m dead serious, I’m forcing you”, he was heard to say. “I’m showing you what to do… take this… I’m dead serious… I’m forcing you. I don’t care, take it,” he added.
And the court heard him saying: “It’s either you eat this or I beat that kid out of you tonight. I’m dead serious…I’m forcing you. I don’t care. Take it.”
The woman was crying during the recording. The court heard that she was unwell after she was forced to take the abortion pills, developing a fever, shivering and experiencing cramps.
When she went to the toilet during the ordeal, she was passing large clots of blood, and she was in great pain, the court also heard.
When Adelani left the house to purchase a pregnancy test, the woman called Gardaí,
Gardaí seized his phone, but as he would not provide the pin, it remained locked for four years, and was only accessed before he was due to stand trial last November. He then pleaded guilty to unlawfully ending the life of a foetus after a jury was empanelled on the second occasion the case was listed for trial
When eventually unlocked, Adelani’s phone revealed internet searches on conducting an abortion at home – and the audio recording of the forced abortion heard in the court.
“HE TOOK MY CHILD “
Reading her victim impact statement to the court last week, the woman said of Adelani: “He took my child”.
“When he wrongfully imprisoned me and caused the termination of my nine-week pregnancy, he took far more than my freedom,” she said.
“He took my child. He took my sense of safety. He took a future that I had already begun to plan and love.
“My baby was real to me. I had hopes, dreams, and a bond with the life that was growing inside me, and all of it was violently stolen from me in a moment of cruelty that I will never forget.”
She also said: “I lost friends through him denying what he did to me and my unborn child. I lost the support I needed to help me through that time.”
“I have forgiven the defendant. The forgiveness does not mean what he did was acceptable. It means I refuse to let what he did continue to control my heart and my life.”
“During Covid, when the world was already isolating, I carried this trauma largely by myself.
“For a time, I lost myself. It changed how I saw the world, how I trusted, and how I understood love,” she added, before then explaining that faith had helped her overcome the ordeal.
“Through healing and faith, I opened my heart again. I found love not only in my amazing husband, who treats me with the love, dignity and kindness I always deserved, but in Christ, who carried me when I could not carry myself,” she said.
But she said: “I will always grieve my child. I will always remember what was taken from me. Healing does not erase the loss, it only means I learned how to live with it.”
ALREADY SERVING SENTENCES
Adelani is already serving a seven-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended for a separate offence – and he was also sentenced last November for 21 months for an additional offence, with both sentences running consecutively.
In a letter to the woman he said he was “heavily apologising” for the pain he caused.
Judge John Aylmer said Adelani’s actions of unlawfully ending the pregnancy of the victim was “extremely premeditated”.
“You had done a great deal of internet research. It was something you planned very carefully. We heard the instructions you gave her with the medication you purchased and recorded yourself doing it.
“You lured her up to Donegal on the pretest of your pretending that you’d have the baby together and engage as a couple, before you forced her to take the medication, you had intimate relations with her.
“You were fully aware of her expressed desire to keep her baby and completely aware of the potential appalling emotional consequences of terminating the pregnancy without her consent.
“I consider the forced termination of the foetus as an extreme act of physical and emotional violence,” the judge said, noting that Adelaki was on bail at the time for a previous offence, and that he now quite considerable convictions and was well known to gardaí in the area.
He sentenced Adelani to 11 years in prison with the final two years suspended for causing the unlawful termination of a pregnancy and five years with the final 12 months suspended for assault causing harm.
Following sentencing, Detective Inspector Paul McGee of Letterkenny Garda Station read a statement in which he said: “During the course of this investigation, the victim displayed unwavering strength and resolve. By choosing to speak out, she has taken an important step that may encourage others who are suffering in silence to reflect on their own situations and seek support.
“Her decision to share her experience brings attention to the hidden reality of abuse that takes place behind closed doors.”
He said this was a reminder that these crimes can and do happen in ordinary homes out of public view
