Nigerian man sentenced to nine years imprisonment in Ireland for forcing his former girlfriend to take abortion pills

A 28-year-old Nigerian man, Adeleke Adelani, was sentenced to nine years in prison in Ireland for forcing his ex-girlfriend to terminate her pregnancy. 

Adelani caused the unlawful termination of the woman’s pregnancy after forcing her to take five “abortion” pills and then locking her in a room at a house in Co Donegal. 

Adelani old his former girlfriend that he would beat her nine-week-old foetus out of her if she did not take the tablets on St Valentine’s Day in 2020.

The victim, who asked for Adelani to be named publicly, had told the court that she will always grieve her child, saying: “Healing does not erase the loss it only means I learned how to live with it.”

Sentencing the accused to 11 years with the final two years suspended, on Thursday, February 19, 2026,  Judge John Aylmer said the accused man’s actions were “extremely premeditated

He referred back to the evidence given at a sentencing hearing last week saying how Adelani had “lured” the woman to Letterkenny on the pretence that they were to have the baby together.

He said the accused had done a great deal of research on the internet as to how to carry out the termination while all the time knowing of the woman’s express desire to keep her baby.

He referred to the woman’s victim impact statement saying that while she was forgiving of Adelani in a very Christian way, it was clear from it nevertheless of the “appalling emotional trauma” that the woman suffered by his actions.

He told the accused: “You ignored her obvious distress. Her tears were audible in the recording you made.”

Aylmer added: “It’s quite difficult to contemplate a more serious offence contrary to this statutory provision.”

Aylmer said the most serious charge was the unlawful ending of the life of a foetus as well as assault causing harm to the woman.

He said he was also taking into consideration the threats made to the woman and the false imprisonment of the woman.

He placed the offence very much on the upper end of the scale and before mitigation merited a sentence of 11 years for the unlawful ending of the life of a foetus and five years for the assault of the woman.

In mitigation, the judge said he had to consider the accused man’s plea of guilty and the fact that he was using his time well in prison as well as expressions of remorse and empathy to the victim.

Because of the mitigation, Aylmer said he was reducing the headline sentence of 11 years for the unlawful ending of the life of a foetus to one of nine years and also reduced the sentence of five years to one of 4½ years for the assault of the woman.

Both of these sentences are to run concurrently.

He is currently serving 5½ years in prison having been sentenced for another crime in November 2025 with the current sentences to run consecutive to this sentence.

The accused had previously pleaded guilty to the charge that he unlawfully ended the life of a foetus, contrary to section 23.2 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting the woman and causing her harm, contrary to section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.

Garda PJ Folan outlined the incidents to barrister for the state, Paul Greene with Fiona Crawford.

Folan outlined how gardaí arrived at what was believed to be a domestic incident in Letterkenny just before 2.20pm on the date in question.

The woman, who is now aged 26, outlined how she had been forced to take the tablets which Adelani had procured from a pharmacy in Dublin.

The court was told that Adelani had been a student at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology and that he had met the woman on Snapchat.

The woman initially became pregnant with Adelani in October 2019 and they both decided to abort the baby with help from a doctor who prescribed abortion tablets.

The woman became pregnant again with Adelani in January 2020 and decided to keep the baby having visited a friend in London and discussing her situation.

The accused was due to go on holiday on February 7th but when he heard that the woman had skipped an appointment to see her GP as she now wished to keep the child, he cancelled the holiday.

He invited the woman to his home in Letterkenny under the belief that he too wanted to keep the baby and they both went to his home in Ashlawn where he turned on her.

The court was told that Adelani forced the woman to take five misoprostol 200mg tablets, told her how to swallow them and then locked her in a bedroom.

He was heard in a conversation played to the courtroom telling the woman “I’m showing you what to do … take this … I’m dead serious … I’m forcing you. I don’t care, take it.”

He is also heard saying “It’s either you eat this or I beat that kid out of you tonight. I’m dead serious … I’m forcing you. I don’t care. Take it.”

The woman said she would like to read out her own victim impact statement and said that what the defendant did to her did not end when the crime was over.

Sitting just feet from the accused, the woman said: “When he wrongfully imprisoned me and caused the termination of my nine-week pregnancy, he took far more than my freedom. He took my child. He took my sense of safety. He took a future that I had already begun to plan and love.

“My baby was real to me. I had hopes, dreams, and a bond with the life that was growing inside me, and all of it was violently stolen from me in a moment of cruelty that I will never forget.”

Speaking after the case, Garda Insp Paul McGee, of Letterkenny Garda station, surrounded by some of the investigation team on the case said he wanted to recognise the “remarkable strength shown by the victim in seeking accountability for the offences committed against her”.

He urged “anyone who has been subjected to violence, coercion or harassment or who has concerns about the wellbeing of someone else” to make contact with gardaí.