A married Home Office worker drugged his pregnant mistress in order to give her a miscarriage, a court heard. Darren Burke, 41, is said to have got hold of mifepristone, a medication prescribed by doctors to bring about abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, and given it to Laura Slade.
Mifepristone works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to advance. Burke, who is deputy director for the emergency services mobile communications programme at the Home Office, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address.
He did not enter a plea to the two charges of unlawfully supplying a poison to procure miscarriage and procuring miscarriage by poison.
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