
Paramedic who tricked woman into abortion jailed for 10 years
Stephen Doohan, 33, was married when he met the woman on holiday in Spain in 2021 and began a long-distance relationship.
In March 2023, the woman travelled to Edinburgh to see him after learning she was pregnant, Glasgow High Court heard.
On March 17, Doohan inserted an abortion drug in her vagina without her knowledge during consensual sex, and the following day insisted on seeing her underwear after she noticed white discharge, the court heard.
READ MORE: Person dies after being hit by train at Scottish station
Doohan had previously pleaded guilty to sexual assault and depositing a drug into her vagina causing her to abort, and depositing with intent to cause her to abort.
On Monday at the High Court in Glasgow, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
The court heard that Doohan convinced the woman to lie to medics at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary because he thought he would be arrested if she told the truth.
The victim attended another regional hospital with her sister and was told that she was having a miscarriage.
READ MORE: Car found at Scottish beauty spot amid search for man missing for four days
The court heard that in May 2023, the woman complained to the Scottish Ambulance Service, which launched an investigation.
It revealed that on March 14, the day the woman told Doohan she was pregnant, he used a work intranet to search for abortion drugs, the court was told.
Police were then called in.
Sentencing, judge Lord Colbeck said: 'You put her through considerable pain over a number of days, and left her facing a lifetime of pain and loss.'
He also said Doohan caused 'long-term psychological injury' to his victim.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


ITV News
3 hours ago
- ITV News
'Please don't move us': Epping asylum seeker speaks to ITV News after High Court ruling
After Tuesday's High Court ruling that migrants should be removed from a hotel in Essex, ITV News understands that 24 other councils are now considering their own legal challenges. ITV News UK Editor Paul Brand reports An asylum seeker living in the Bell Hotel in Epping has told ITV News he feels "helpless" after the High Court ruled that migrants should be moved out of the hotel. In the first interview with an asylum seeker in the hotel since the council won a legal challenge on Tuesday, Khadar Mohamed told ITV News his message to the people of Epping was: "Please don't do this to us". "Please don't move us, if you move us everyone else will want to do the same to us," he said. It comes as more than 20 other local councils told ITV News they were looking closely at the ruling to consider their next steps. And Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch is encouraging Tory councils to fight asylum hotels in their areas. In a letter to all Conservative controlled councils, she welcomed the ruling in favour of Epping Forest District Council, writing: "I am encouraging Conservative council leaders to take the same steps if your legal advice supports it." However, for Mohamed, 24, who is from Somalia, said the High Court decision was "scary" and "emotionally painful". He told ITV News Senior Producer Nathan Lee he was surprised by the mass protests outside the Essex hotel in recent weeks. "I never thought I'd be coming here and then that would be happening to me, people not wanting me there," he said. On Tuesday, a High Court judge ruled the former Bell Hotel in Epping must stop housing asylum seekers by September 12. The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied the charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month. A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences, while several other men have been charged over disorder outside the hotel. Mohamed told ITV News that since the arrests, he had found the situation "hostile" and "difficult". "Everything changed," he said. "Now we're seen as criminals, before we were just normal people." But Mohamed said he wanted to speak out because - "I want to make the people know that I'm not what they say I am". "After the incident, people look at you and they're scared for their life, they're scared for their kids and pushing them behind their backs. "I'm not here to harm anybody, I'm here to look for safety, to look for a better life," he insisted. Mohamed travelled through Turkey, Austria and Germany before crossing the channel to get to the UK, and has now been granted asylum. He said he thinks the people of Epping "have a reason to be mad" because of the number of asylum seekers coming to the area. "I know they're mad over the whole thing about the government and how they dealt with this - I'm sorry, but I'm not at fault, I'm looking for a better life," he said. "I'm not trying to take anything from them, not trying to make their lives difficult," Mohamed insisted. "The only offence I've committed is coming to this country illegally, I'll confess to that. But I had to do it - I had no option," he told ITV News. Th e government says it is looking at "contingency options" for asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel in Epping, insisting it will also "find alternative locations" for other asylum seekers in hotels across the country. Responding to the ruling, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said: "We're looking very carefully at the court ruling that was handed down yesterday, we'll want to identify a range of contingency options for how those people can be appropriately accommodated elsewhere." Jarvis refused to say what the alternative locations for asylum seekers would be, insisting "it would vary depending on different locations", and the government will "have to look at a range of different scenarios". Multiple councils are now considering the Epping ruling to see whether they could mount similar legal News has contacted every council across the country to ask how they intend to respond to the High Court judgement. So far, 24 said they were looking closely at it to consider their next steps, leaving open the option of taking their own legal action. A Labour Party spokesperson, responding to Kemi Badenoch's letter to Tory councils on asylum hotels, said: "This is desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system.


The Courier
5 hours ago
- The Courier
Prisoners like Angus killer Tasmin Glass could have fewer freedom bids under parole reform proposals
Prisoners like Angus killer Tasmin Glass could be forced to spend longer periods behind bars in between parole hearings. A consultation on parole reforms has been launched by the Scottish Government, considering transparency and communication issues that plague victims in the current process. The consultation comes in the wake of The Courier's A Voice for Victims campaign which has called for these much-needed reforms. We have worked with the family of Glass' victim Steven Donaldson, Linda McDonald who survived an attack by Dundee murderer Robbie McIntosh, and the family of Barry Smullen who was stabbed to death in Perth. Justice Secretary Angela Constance spoke exclusively to The Courier as the parole consultation was launched, saying she believes the process must have victim wellbeing at its heart. The consultation considers 43 questions, which collectively have the potential for important reforms to improve the lives of victims and increase transparency. Potential areas for change include how long a criminal should have to wait between parole hearings after being denied by the board. Currently, for prisoners like Tasmin Glass it is 12 months, and for prisoners like Robbie McIntosh it is two years. Glass is a long-term prisoner while McIntosh is on an order of life restriction. That could be increased depending on the results of the consultation. Victims and their families have long pointed to this aspect of parole as one of the most traumatising, as they feel like they are constantly being forced to engage with the process. Another question raises the possibility of more people attending parole hearings. It asks if victims should have an automatic right to be there, or if media could watch proceedings. Other options include more detail being given by the parole board around its decisions to release or not release. One long-sought reform that is not in the consultation is the current automatic right for long-term prisoners to be considered for parole halfway through their sentence. The Justice Secretary said that question would need to come through a different part of legislation. The Justice Secretary spoke with The Courier in Dundee on Wednesday afternoon, the day of the launch. She applauded The Courier's campaign to help drive these reforms forward. 'I am determined that the parole system, at its very heart, has to have victims and their families and their interests,' said Ms Constance. She added: 'That's crucial to the deliberations that the parole board has to make that's ultimately about public safety as well as rehabilitation. 'The Courier has been a great advocate for victims and their families and has led a campaign that is driven on improvements. 'So while there are some really important fundamental questions about how we improve that overall openness, transparency, information, (and) treatment of victims. 'There are also issues that are important in terms of process and management. 'There's an appetite for us to be looking at all of that. 'This is an attempt by the government to be open and its built on the engagement that we've had with victims, and the advocacy that victims themselves, and papers like The Courier, and victims support organisations have championed.'


Glasgow Times
6 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Former Salmond staffer rejects Sturgeon claims in book as ‘obviously false'
Geoff Aberdein, who worked for Mr Salmond when he was first minister, hit out at Ms Sturgeon, saying: 'I was brought up that you didn't speak ill of the dead. 'But I think if you're going to speak ill of the dead, at least make your claims accurate.' Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon with her memoir, Frankly, which was published last week (Jane Barlow/PA) He told the Holyrood Sources podcast that Mr Salmond's widow Moira was 'particularly upset and frustrated at a lot of what has been said' about her late husband, who died suddenly in October 2024. Mr Aberdein continued: 'I think it was important to set out and correct the record not just because Alex is not in position to defend himself, but for myself as well and the series of other officials and civil servants that have contacted me.' Claims that Mr Salmond was the person who leaked the story of the sexual harassment allegations against him are 'obviously false', Mr Aberdein insisted. He said that when his former boss took the phone call to say the story about the allegations was being published by the Daily Record he was actually meeting lawyers to 'draft a legal summons to prevent Nicola Sturgeon's Government from making the allegations public'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'To suggest Alex was simultaneously leaking documents deeply damaging to his reputation whilst at the same time paying lawyers a lot of money to get a court order to prevent publication of the same material is just utterly absurd.' Mr Salmond went on to be acquitted of all the charges against him in a court case in 2020. Mr Aberdein also dismissed claims by Ms Sturgeon that Mr Salmond 'didn't read' the white paper on independence which had been produced by the Scottish government in the run up to the 2014 referendum. In her recently published memoir, Frankly, Ms Sturgeon spoke out about her 'cold fury' with her former leader over his 'abdication of responsibility' on the key document. Mr Aberdein – who said he would not be reading the book – accepted that his former boss 'delegated the responsibility for drafting the white paper to Nicola Sturgeon'. Mr Aberdein said he wanted to 'correct the record' following comments made about his former boss, Alex Salmond (Andrew Milligan/PA) However he insisted: 'To suggest, as I think was the purpose of this story, that he wasn't engaged in the process of a prospectus for independence is utterly nonsense. The former Salmond chief of staff also rejected claims that Mr Salmond was 'apparently against same-sex marriage' – saying that this was 'demonstrably false'. Mr Aberdein told the podcast Mr Salmond had 'declared his personal support for gay marriage for the first time' in a newspaper article in April 2011. And he added that while the SNP election manifesto that year had pledged to consult on the issue Mr Salmond 'chose to come out… excuse the pun, the turn of phrase, ahead of that result, to say that he personally supported it.' With the SNP having won the 2011 Holyrood election, Mr Aberdein recalled 'being in the room with advisors, civil servants and indeed ministers about how we would go about reassuring different sections of our society about that legislation, particularly religious leaders and other civic leaders'. He also made the 'obvious point' that 'if Alex Salmond didn't want legislation to be progressed, he was the first minister of a majority SNP government, it wouldn't have been progressed'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'The point falls down on that alone.'