CPS drops case against woman over at-home illegal abortion

PROSECUTORS have dropped charges against a woman accused of carrying out an at-home lockdown illegal abortion following a three-year investigation.

Bethany Cox denied taking a drug on July 6 2020 with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive in the knowledge it would lead to the termination of the pregnancy.

The 22-year-old was also charged with administering a poison between with intent to procure a miscarriage as the first coronavirus lockdown ended.

Ms Cox, from Eaglescliffe, Stocktonon-tees, was due to stand trial next week but yesterday prosecutor Jolyon Perks formally offered no evidence in the case due to “evidential difficulties” in rebutting her defence statement.

Mr Perks told Teesside Crown Court: “The Crown came to the conclusion they were not in possession of key evidence to rebut the defence case; as such there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”

Nicholas Lumley KC, representing Ms Cox, said she had given the same account in her defence statement as she had to police officers immediately after the incident, and it was “beyond regrettable” that her case had got to such a late stage.

He told the court: “This is an extraordinary state of affairs where Bethany Cox gave birth to her child in July 2020. In the throes of grief she was interviewed, gave an account telling the police what she had done.

“She was under investigation for three years, then prosecuted, then at the 11th hour, when the court and defence highlighted evidential difficulties... The defence statement echoes what she told police three years earlier, the evidential difficulties have always been there. The prosecution accept what she said to the police must have been right. That is beyond regrettable.”

Mr Lumley said a psychiatric examination had confirmed that the proceedings had had a “profound” effect on Ms Cox, who was not present at the hearing.