A woman who became pregnant during an affair with a married senior government official told the court that he looked “very worried” before making her a drink that was allegedly enriched with an abortion drug.
Darren Burke, 43, deputy director of the Home Office’s mobile emergency communications program, has been charged with attempting to cause a miscarriage of Laura Slade.
She refused to drink a glass of orange juice allegedly supplied with mifepristone, a drug used to induce abortion, on December 4, 2020, but had an unrelated miscarriage weeks later, Isleworth court said. .
Burke of Windsor denies that he received the drug on purpose and that he tried to use it to secure a miscarriage.
Jurors heard that he encouraged her to terminate the pregnancy and sent her links to an abortion clinic and abortion pills after she became pregnant during their five-year affair.
Testifying behind a screen, Slade said: “This was never an option for me, but I knew I had to take into account everyone else around me and the impact it would have on them.
She said she was “very clear” that she did not want an abortion, adding: “I told him when the deadline was and that I was detaining my child.”
There were messages between her and Burke in court, in which she said: “You screamed at me, forced me to call an abortion clinic, told me how this would destroy your loved ones many times, you offered to hold my hand. at the abortion clinic, you broke my heart. “
She said she had an “instant sense that something was wrong” when Burke offered to bring her a latte or Starbucks tea the next morning on December 3, 2020, even though he had never brought her a hot drink before.
Slade said she told him she was suffering from morning sickness before he arrived at her apartment in Chiswick, west London, on December 4. “He was very worried, walking between the front room and the kitchen and offering me a drink again,” she said.
The court heard that Burke returned with two glasses, one of which looked like orange juice and the other of water, while drinking a cup of tea or coffee.
Slade continued, “I just looked at him and I looked at him and I said, ‘Well, I’m not drinking this. I told you I had morning sickness.
She said she was upset when he told her he didn’t want to be on the baby’s birth certificate and asked him to leave. The court heard that he asked the orange juice: “Will you drink it? She said she told him, “Damn, no.”
She continued, “Then he picked it up and carried it into the kitchen with his glass, then returned.”
After he left, Slade said, she found white powder on the empty glass and called police to report her suspicions the next day.
Defending himself, David Spence QC suggested that Burke did not “insist” on Slade to drink orange juice, but simply asked her twice because he was “caring.”
The lawyer asked, “Did he explain that he brought the abortion pills with him, and when it was obvious that you were determined to keep the baby, he ground them and rinsed them in the sink?”
Slade replied, “No, I don’t agree.”
The process continues.
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