A Scottish paramedic who secretly gave a pregnant woman an abortion has been jailed for 10 and a half years.
Stephen Doohan concocted the sick plan after the unnamed woman told him she was having his baby.
The 33-year-old, who was a Clinical Team Leader with the Scottish Ambulance Service, was married at the time.
He crushed pills into a syringe before administering the medication as she lay on a bed at his home in Edinburgh’s upmarket Grange area in 2023.
Doohan gave her more of the drug days later, causing her to fall ill and faint in the shower.
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It later emerged that she had sadly lost the baby as a result of what Doohan did.
He had pleaded with her not to go police – and also tried to buy her silence with gifts, but she eventually reported him to the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Doohan met the woman on holiday in Spain in 2021 and neglected to mention he was married. They stayed in contact until March 2023, when she found she was pregnant with his child.
By this time, Doohan had temporarily separated from his wife and was living at a flat in Edinburgh. Days after the woman found she was pregnant, the pair had consensual sex again.
He then went on to do something she could not see, but she was not suspicious of his actions at that time.
The next day, the woman began to suffer stomach cramps, so Doohan gave her diazepam for the pain, sending her into a ‘deep sleep’ until she woke up to see Doohan ‘initiating sexual contact’.
This time, she was suspicious of what he was doing but was also feeling the effects of the diazepam. Doohan later went to the toilet, and the woman took the chance to peek under the mattress.
Prosecutor Scott McKenzie explained: ‘She found a plastic syringe containing crushed tablets which had been pushed to the end of the syringe. Next to the syringe were two white tablets that were in the shape of a star.’
After Googling what abortion tablets looked like online, the search returned images that matched the tablet she had found.
Doohan initially denied what he had done before sobbing, claiming he was scared, and got the tablets from the doctor.
He then claimed the tablets wouldn’t work on the woman because it was the wrong dosage.
The traumatised mum-to-be phoned a friend who urged her to go to the police. But the woman initially had concerns for Doohan, and she did not want to ‘ruin’ him if she was okay.
She still, however, recorded a later conversation with him, and it was then he confessed to intimately inserting the syringe, but stated he ‘could not go through with it’.
The woman also discovered he had been researching abortion on the internet. She tried to keep the tablets and syringe as proof, but could not find them after she had gone to the bathroom.
The woman then had to go to the hospital again due to ongoing pain, accompanied by Doohan, who pleaded with her not to tell the truth and lie to doctors about where the pills came from.
Mr McKenzie told the court: ‘The midwife recalled her being distressed and concerned about the baby. Doohan appeared quiet and expressionless.’
The next day, the woman collapsed in the shower and had to return to the hospital, this time without Doohan. It was confirmed she suffered a miscarriage.
Doohan then splashed out on various gifts, including perfume, socks, money to get her hair done and football tickets to keep her quiet.
The last contact she had with Doohan was in late June 2023.
Doohan was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after pleading guilty at a hearing in May to assault, sexual assault and another charge of causing the woman to have an abortion.
Lord Colbeck also imposed a non-harassment order banning him from approaching or contacting the woman.
Mr McKenzie said the woman has been ‘significantly affected’ by her ordeal.
Mark Stewart KC, defending, said Doohan was ‘deeply sorry’ for what he had done, and said Doohan had issues at the time which affected his judgement and decision making, although that did not excuse what happened.
Doohan was also put on the sex offenders list.
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