Illegal abortion trial collapses as jury discharged for legal reasons

The judge apologised to the jury in the illegal abortion trial as he discharged members ‘with a heavy heart’ due to legal reasons

Elliot Benham, 23, (second left under umbrella) and Sophie Harvey, 23, (second right under umbrella) leave Cheltenham Magistrates' Court during an earlier hearing (PA)

The jury in the trial of a teenager charged with arranging her own illegal abortion has been discharged for legal reasons.

Sophie Harvey, 25, was on trial at Gloucester Crown Court accused of obtaining abortion pills to end her pregnancy after learning she was over the 24-week gestation period for a legal abortion in England.

She denied procuring a poison and procuring her own miscarriage by poison.

Harvey was also accused alongside her boyfriend Elliot Benham, 25, of attempting to pervert the course of public justice. The pair had both pleaded guilty to concealing the birth of a child.

But on Monday, a week into the trial, Judge Ian Lawrie KC, the Recorder of Gloucester, apologised to the jury as he told them that they were being discharged from the case.

He said: “I am going to be discharging you and I do that with a heavy heart. I have made a decision to discharge you. It is a position that is unavoidable.

“I am sorry things like this do happen.”

During the trial, the jury was told the charges related to events in the summer of 2018 when the defendants were aged 19.

Prosecutors alleged Harvey took a drug they purchased to end the pregnancy.

Harvey told the jury she had not taken the tablet and the infant was stillborn when she delivered naturally in the bathroom at her parent’s home in Gloucestershire.

Harvey, of St Mary’s Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and Benham, of Wingfield, Swindon, Wiltshire, were released on bail.

A further mention hearing was fixed for June 14 and the defendants were excused from attending.