BBC's reporting caused illegal abortion trial to collapse after 'misleading' news broadcast, judge says
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A high-profile trial of a woman accused of illegally aborting her baby collapsed due to 'misleading' reporting by the BBC, a judge has said. Sophie Harvey, 25, previously stood trial accused of procuring her own miscarriage when she was 19. Prosecutors alleged she took the medication after learning she was at 28 weeks and five days gestation - meaning she could not get a legal abortion in England as she was beyond the 24-week cut-off.
![[Harvey and her boyfriend Elliot Benham, 25, always accepted they had purchased abortion pills online]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/19/84914083-0-Prosecutors_allege_that_after_learning_Harvey_could_not_have_a_l-a-2_1734983902895.jpg)
Harvey and her boyfriend Elliot Benham, 25, always accepted they had purchased abortion pills online. But Harvey insisted she had never taken them and instead gave birth to a stillborn child in the bathroom of her home in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in September 2018.
![[Lawyers defending the couple cited inaccurate reports of the proceedings by the BBC]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/19/84851087-0-Harvey_has_denied_procuring_a_poison_procuring_own_miscarriage_b-a-3_1734983934980.jpg)
The couple stood trial at Gloucester Crown Court in May of this year but the jury was discharged by a judge following an application by their lawyers who cited inaccurate reports of the proceedings by the corporation. During a hearing held in the absence of the jury, the court heard the opening headlines of the BBC Points West edition of Thursday May 16 had shown archive footage of a property in Cirencester with a tent and scenes of crime officers working and stated: 'The remains were found in the garden.'.
![[Police search a potential crime scene in Kingsdown, Swindon, after charging the couple. They walked free from court on Wednesday]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/23/19/84851769-0-Police_search_a_potential_crime_scene_in_Kingsdown_Swindon_relat-a-4_1734983971659.jpg)
Later, in the report of that day's trial proceedings in which Harvey had given evidence, a journalist said in a piece to camera she had taken the pill. Sophie Harvey, 25, and her partner Elliot Benham, also 25, stood trial at Gloucester Crown Court in May of this year but the jury was discharged by a judge.
