A woman has been found not guilty of having an illegal abortion during the second coronavirus lockdown.
Nicola Packer, 45, cried and wiped her eyes with a tissue after she was acquitted by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court in south-west London, of "unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing" with the "intent to procure a miscarriage".
The trial heard she took abortion medicine at home in November 2020 and later brought the foetus to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in a backpack.
Ms Packer, then 41 years old, took prescribed medications mifepristone and misoprostol, when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, jurors previously heard.
The legal limit for taking medication at home for an abortion is 10 weeks.
Prosecutors alleged that Ms Packer knew she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks, which she denied.
Jurors rejected the prosecution's case to find the 45-year-old not guilty of having an illegal abortion.
Ms Packer was supported by five people in the public gallery, with some hugging each other after the verdict was read to the court.
