A senior Home Office civil servant has been accused of trying to coerce his mistress into aborting their child, a London court has heard. The father-of-one is also alleged to have spiked his lover’s drink with an abortion drug, which she refused to take.

Darren Burke, a Home Office boss, has been accused of placing an abortion drug into his mistress’s drink. His lover, Laura Slade, claims this occurred after she informed Mr Burke that she was pregnant with their child after an adulterous affair.

Ms Slade made it “very clear” that she did not want to abort their child. “I told him when the due date was and that I was keeping my child”, she told Isleworth Crown Court.

Text exchanges were also shown to the jury. In one text, Ms Slade wrote: “You’ve yelled at me, force[d] me to call an abortion clinic, told me how this will destroy your loved ones repetitively, you offered to hold my hand at the abortion clinic, you have crushed my heart.”

In another text, Mr Burke replied: “Babes I understand it’s your body but we can’t keep it.”

On two separate occasions, at a Starbucks café and then at her flat, Mr Burke urged Ms Slade to take a drink. The prosecution claims that Ms Slade discovered a white powder on the inside of one glass at her flat. She then contacted the police after her suspicions were aroused.

The trial is ongoing.

SPUC comment

A SPUC spokesperson said: “Abortion coercion can take many forms, but each case hurts women and kills unborn babies.

“As SPUC has reported, a shocking 2022 poll revealed that around 15% of UK women have been coerced into abortions – that is 15% of all women in the UK.

“Whatever the outcome of this case, abortion coercion is a devastating reality for many women in this country and elsewhere. We must act now to protect mothers and their unborn babies.”

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