A WOMAN illegally aborted her baby then took the fetus to hospital in a backpack and claimed she had miscarried, a court heard.
Nicola Packer allegedly took abortion medication at home during the Covid lockdown when she was around 26 weeks pregnant.
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The 41-year-old then made her way to Chelsea and Westminster hospital the following day with the baby in a bag, it is said.
Isleworth Crown Court heard she told a nurse she “thought she had miscarried” and was 16 to 18 weeks pregnant – but she later changed this to ten weeks.
A post mortem revealed the fetus was healthy and around 26 weeks.
The legal limit for at-home abortions in the UK is ten weeks, while the outer limit for the procedure is 24 weeks.
Jurors heard despite this, Packer took prescribed medications mifepristone and misoprostol on November 6, 2020.
She claimed she only learnt about her pregnancy four days prior but had started bleeding heavily.
While at the hospital, Packer allegedly searched for “is mifesopron detectable” and “is the abortion pill detectable UK”.
The court heard she eventually admitted on November 8 that she had taken abortion pills received in the post from the Marie Stopes clinic.
Packer said she thought she was less than ten weeks pregnant and when she had looked into the toilet bowl, she saw “something larger than she had expected”.
Following her arrest, police discovered Packer had contacted Marie Stopes on November 2, it was said.
She then made a number of web searches – including “is at home abortion treatment effective up to 12 weeks” and “abortion limit UK”.
Packer spoke to Marie Stopes again on November 3 and requested a telephone appointment because it could be arranged more quickly than a video call, the court heard.
Jurors were told that the following day, she had a “full consultation” with a nurse and was later sent the medications.
After taking at least the first medication, the day before she went to hospital, Packer viewed a page titled “Medical Abortion from 10 weeks to 24 weeks BPA” and searched “abortion at home at 15 weeks” and “13 – 24 week medical abortion”.
Shortly after 5am on November 7, she searched “if you late miscarry at home what do you do with the fetus” and “can the father take the miscarried fetus to the hospital to get rid of in the UK”.
Prosecutor Alexandra Felix KC said: “These searches were all at a time when Nicola Packer could not have known what the fetus looked like nor its size, yet the searches suggest that she knows that the fetus she is carrying is more than 10 weeks old.”
Packer denies “unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing” with the “intent to procure a miscarriage”.
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