Man sentenced to years in jail after attempting secret abortion on unknowing wife

London, Mar 4, 2008 / 02:31 am (CNA).- A man who tried to cause his wife to unknowingly abort their child by hiding abortifacient drugs in her food has been sentenced to three years and nine months in jail for administering a poison with intent to cause miscarriage, the Daily Mail reports.

Gil Magira, 36, hid abortion pills bought over the internet in his wife’s sandwich. After she started bleeding, he took his wife to the hospital, reportedly feigning concern for her and the unborn child.

However, the next day he gave her a second dose by mixing the tablets in her yogurt.

The drugs failed to work. Magira’s wife, Anat Abraham, 41, gave birth to a healthy son named Matan. The baby is now eight months old.

Magira was tried for the crime of “administering a poison with intent to cause miscarriage,” believed to be the first such prosecution since Britain legalized abortion 40 years ago.

According to the Daily Mail, Abraham discussed how the crime has affected her.

"You cannot imagine how wonderful it feels to hold my son,” she said.

"I know how close I got to never having him. I'll never get over what my ex-husband did to me.

"He tried to terminate our baby, end his child's life before it had even begun and that's the cruelest thing imaginable. "But despite everything Matan is here today," she added.

The couple, both British citizens, had met in Israel in 1997. They married two years later and returned to London, where they established bakeries and a restaurant selling kosher food.

They separated in 2004, largely because Magira did not want children. In May 2006, Magira said he was ready to start a family and they began living together again.

In November, Abraham told her husband she was pregnant. According to the prosecuting attorney, Simon Mayo, Magira panicked and pressured her to have an abortion.

"She told him she did not want one," the prosecutor said.

When Abraham showed her husband a scan of their unborn child, he said, "Oh, it does not even look like a baby."

In February 2007 Magira put the drugs in his wife’s food. He confessed soon afterward.

"What made it worse was seeing how determined he was to get rid of the baby that I already felt moving," Abraham said.

She also said she would eventually have to tell her son about the attack.

"I don't have any idea how I will possibly tell him,” Abraham said, “but I guess at some point I will have to find a way.”

Magira’s defense attorney, Jonathan Goldberg, had argued that Magira was mentally ill. Goldberg also said Magira realized he had sinned against his Orthodox Jewish faith by seeking an abortion. The attorney suggested Magira hoped to have access to his son once he was released from prison.