A woman accused of having an illegal abortion is “still utterly traumatised” by her experience, her barrister has said as she told jurors the facts of her client’s case “are a tragedy but they are not a crime”.
Nicola Packer, 45, took abortion medicine at home in November 2020 and later brought the foetus to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Isleworth Crown Court has heard.
She is charged with “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage”.
Packer, then 41 years old, took prescribed medications mifepristone and misoprostol when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, jurors have heard.
The legal limit for at-home abortions is 10 weeks.
Packer denies knowing she was more than 10 weeks pregnant, tearfully telling the jury during her evidence that she would not have taken the medication if she had known how far along she was.
Fiona Horlick KC, defending, said in her closing speech on Tuesday: “The facts of this case are a tragedy but they are not a crime and Ms Packer is not guilty of this offence.
“Remember what she said, she said: ‘I would never have put the baby or myself through it if I had known’.”
Ms Horlick said Packer rang the abortion services after finding out she was pregnant “to her shock”, and that after a discussion with them believed she was under 10 weeks pregnant and could take the medicine.
“It is hard to imagine how traumatically awful it must have been for Ms Packer thinking that she would only see blood clots to look into the toilet bowl to see a small but fully formed baby,” Ms Horlick continued.
“Four-and-a-half years later you can see how she is still utterly traumatised by that.”
Ms Horlick told jurors Packer “wanted to do the right thing for the baby”.
“She did not dump its body in a rubbish bin,” the barrister said. “People do do that.
“She investigated funeral homes. She took the baby to hospital with her.
“Are those the actions of somebody who knowingly took medication not believing she was under 10 weeks pregnant?”
The court heard Packer told staff she had no idea she was “so pregnant”, and was observed as being “in shock”.
“This is a scared, traumatised woman who had been through the worst experience of her life and needed help,” Ms Horlick said.
The barrister called her client a “genuine, honest person” and insisted “all of the evidence in this case points to her innocence”.
The prosecution alleges that Packer knew she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks.
“The rights and wrongs of abortion are of absolutely no concern in this trial,” prosecutor Alexandra Felix KC said in her closing speech earlier on Tuesday.
“Why Nicola Packer chose to have an abortion is no concern of anybody else’s – that is her individual choice which she is entitled to have.”
“What the prosecution says she did … she realised that she was not in the early stages of pregnancy or less than 10 weeks,” Ms Felix said.
“After she knew she was pregnant she must have started looking back and thinking to herself when could this have happened.”
Ms Felix said Packer is “willing to tell lies” and that her claim to the hospital that she had had a miscarriage was a “charade”.
Ms Horlick claimed the prosecution speech was “full of speculation and distortions of the evidence”, telling the jury: “Let us just come down to earth and deal with reality.”
The typical full gestation term is 40 weeks and the outer limit for abortions in the UK is 24 weeks.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
