Sarah Catt: Eight years for the cheating wife who used drugs bought online to abort baby TWO days before it was due to be born

  • Sarah Catt, 35, aborted her unborn baby ‘in the final stages of pregnancy’
  • She admitted administering poison with intent to procure a miscarriage
  • She was jailed for eight years by a judge at Leeds Crown Court

By
Chris Brooke

06:30 EST, 17 September 2012


|

18:32 EST, 17 September 2012

Convicted: Sarah Catt (front), who aborted her own baby within a week of his due date, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a judge at Leeds Crown Court

A MARRIED woman who aborted her baby in the final week of pregnancy following an affair with a work colleague was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Sarah Catt, 35, successfully concealed the pregnancy from her husband and took drugs she had bought on the internet to end her pregnancy.

She claimed the boy was stillborn and she buried him and cleaned up the bathroom at home without her husband finding out.

However, police inquiries later revealed the baby was aborted just two days before her due date – and the following day she went on a family holiday to France as if nothing had happened.

The alarm was raised because there was a record of Catt’s pregnancy from an abortion clinic’s scan she had after passing the 24-week legal limit for terminations.

She lied to detectives about having a legal abortion at a clinic, but officers have never found the baby’s remains or evidence to show he wasn’t born alive. Catt has refused to say where her son’s remains could be found.

She pleaded guilty earlier this year to administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Cooke said: ‘The child in the womb here was so near to birth that in my judgement all right-thinking people would consider this offence more serious than manslaughter, or any offence on the calendar other than murder.’ He told Catt she had robbed an apparently healthy child, ‘vulnerable and defenceless, of the life which he was about to commence’.

He added: ‘This was a cold, calculated decision that you took for your self-interest alone.’

Leeds Crown Court  heard Catt had an extraordinary history of secret pregnancies and deception.

In 1999, when she was a second year university student, she hid her first pregnancy from her parents. She quit her maths course, gave birth to a daughter in hospital and gave her up for adoption immediately. She then began the relationship with Stephen Catt, who she would marry in 2009 after having two children.

But in 2000, during the early stages
of their relationship, Catt had an abortion with his agreement at
‘around the legal limit’ of 24 weeks.

She did later give birth to a girl,
but only after seeking to have a termination when she was ‘too far
advanced’. Astonishingly, she also kept a further pregnancy a secret
from Mr Catt until the birth. Despite marrying Mr Catt, a  41-year-old
electrical engineer, she was conducting a long-term affair with a
married colleague at the law firm in York where she worked as an office
manager.

Scroll down for video

‘Robbed the baby of life’: Sarah Catt, pictured in a police mugshot and earlier today, was condemned by a judge

Prosecutor Simon Waley said police discovered the affair when examining Catt’s computer and took a statement from the lover.

The on-off affair had gone on for seven years without Mr Catt finding out, the court heard.

In October 2009 Catt told her lover
she was pregnant. He offered to leave his wife to start a family with
her but she ended the relationship and in January told him there was no
child and it was none of his business.

The couple resumed their ‘occasional
sexual relationship’ in June 2010 – soon after she had the home abortion
at almost full term.

During more than nine hours of
interviews with police Catt insisted she paid £1,700 cash for an
abortion at the Marie Stopes clinic in Manchester three days before the
legal cut-off date.

Detectives, however, discovered a
trail of evidence to show she was concealing a crime. It began in March
2010 when she went to the Leeds branch of the British Pregnancy Advisory
Service with the intention of having an abortion.

Sentencing: Catt was jailed for eight years by a judge sitting at Leeds Crown Court

However, it wasn’t carried out because
an ultrasound scan indicated she was 26 weeks pregnant. Catt had a
second scan at St James’ Hospital in Leeds where superior equipment
estimated she was 29 weeks pregnant.

Immediately after the scan she did an
internet search, asking: ‘Where can I get an illegal abortion?’ In April
Catt ordered an abortion drug over the internet from a company in
Mumbai, India.

The package was delivered on May 10
and she carried out further  searches about the drug. She took an
afternoon off work on May 25 and is likely to have taken the abortion
drug then. She is believed to have given birth while her husband was out
the next day.

Catt told a psychiatrist she ‘acted
alone’ at her home in Sherburn in Elmet, North Yorkshire. She claimed
‘the child was a boy, was not breathing on birth and did not move’.

The Judge told Catt she had shown no
‘remorse’, commenting that, had she not taken the drug, ‘there is no
reason to believe that you would not have been delivered of a healthy
boy’.

Mr Catt did not attend court. He is said to be standing by his wife.

VIDEO: Police outside court: ‘Unusal and disturbing case”… 

ONLINE DRUGS AND ABORTION LAW

The dangers of online abortion pills were highlighted by the Daily Mail last year when it was discovered that British firms were selling the drugs for as little as £15.

A Mail investigation found that Women could have the tablets delivered in less than a week, enabling them to terminate their pregnancies illegally and in secret.

It is against the law for the pills to be administered without the supervision of a doctor or specially-trained nurse.

The investigation found that pills available online were far cheaper than having the treatment privately, which can cost up to £500.

Buyers had only to fill in a quick online form giving their date of birth, address, and details of any allergies or medication they were taking.

It is legal to have an abortion in the UK during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the abortion must be performed in a hospital or specialised licensed clinic.

Two doctors must also agree that it would cause less damage to the woman’s physical or mental health than continuing with the pregnancy.

It can only be performed after 24 weeks if the woman’s life is at risk, or there is a substantial risk the child would suffer serious physical or mental handicap.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

“Catt has refused to say where her son¿s remains could be found.”

TDXI
,

LIVERPOOL,
18/9/2012 03:10

This woman obviously has a mental illness.
Why not use contraceptives?
Why not seek an abortion very early on?
Why such a medical history without any follow up alarm into her mental health?
I think that this woman has slipped though the net of medical authorities until, finally, the one to suffer most is an innocent baby.
Why jail? She should be getting long term mental assessment and care.
Her other children need a functioning mother, not a jailed untreated lunatic.

Anna Victoria
,

Melbourne,
18/9/2012 02:56

I feel sorry for the unborn baby who didn’t do anything to deserve this cruelty. May her crime haunt her rest of her life.

Jay
,

Harlow, United Kingdom,
18/9/2012 02:03

20yrs min, but its a woman so a slap on the wrist it will be.

P B
,

Northants,
18/9/2012 01:58

@ Nathan, Drake. You are just as ignorant and twisted as the whack job who aborted the full term baby. Go back to the cabinet from which you scurried from.

EAC
,

London_England, United Kingdom,
18/9/2012 01:48

Why is it ok for someone to kill an unborn child up to 24 weeks and not ok after? The foetus is a living being from conception and research has proven that the child feels pain after a couple of weeks in the womb. If a jail sentence is to be handed to this woman, why not hand it to every other woman guilty of the same crime of aborting an unborn child whether it be from the beginning of conception or up to the days before birth? It should be outlawed completely, why should anyone have the right to decide whether someone gets to live or die? There are some serious legal flaws!

gem_news
,

Belfast, Ireland,
18/9/2012 01:20

White woman.. Nothing else needs to be said. They simply aren’t worth it. Astonishingly unfaithful, completely unhappy and just overall soul-suckers that will suck the enjoyment out of the life of any man. Never.

Nathan
,

Drake,
18/9/2012 01:14

With her history of unwanted preganancies WHY didn’t she learn to use birth control? I am pro choice but I detest women who use abortion as a means of birth control. How stupid can you get?

Penelope
,

Australia,
18/9/2012 00:40

Why the negative ratings for a woman who has done a despicable act. The poor baby is the sufferer and to think of how it died is beyond belief. This woman knew what she was doing and the sentence fits the crime. Her living children will learn one day what their did and I hope they separate themselves from her. Tragic for all involved but especially for the baby who had no say.

Dori
,

Inverness,
18/9/2012 00:35

Why didn’t she just abstain ?

sampet
,

Lancashire,
18/9/2012 00:27

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