Home Office worker accused of spiked mistress’ drink with abortion drug

A Home Office worker “mixed his pregnant lover’s drink” with an abortion drug to keep his “double life” a secret from his wife and family, a jury heard.

Darren Burke “allegedly tried to serve his lover Laura Slade a glass of orange juice during a discussion about how much child support he would pay,” he reported The mirror.

Isleworth Crown Court was told that Burke, who has a child with his wife, had an “obvious” motive. “If Mrs. Slade had kept the baby, his double life would have collapsed around him,” prosecutor Paul Jarvis said.

The prosecutor described a series of “bitter” WhatsApp messages between Burke and Slade after she discovered she was pregnant in November 2020. Burke reportedly tried unsuccessfully to persuade Slade, who has two children from a previous relationship, to end the baby.

The jury heard he messaged Slade a week later, offering to come to her apartment and bring a “Starbucks latte or a tea,” an offer Jarvis said was “unusual as he’s never.” had previously made such an offer”.

During his visit, Burke reportedly asked again if she would like some tea, which she declined, before coming out of the kitchen with a mixture of orange squash and water.

When they discussed child support, Burke’s “primary concern was to make sure Miss Slade drank that mix of orange and water,” prosecutors said. But she didn’t touch the drink because “his insistence that she drink it worried her.”

Though he dumped the untouched drink, Slade was able to have the glass tested. Traces of mifepristone, a drug prescribed by doctors to induce abortions in early pregnancy, have been found.

Burke denies supplying and illegally administering a poison to induce a miscarriage. He told police he bought the abortion drug online in case Slade decided she wanted to abort the baby. He took the pills to Slade’s apartment but then used the empty jar to crush them and wash them away, Burke reportedly said.

The Home Office official has been suspended from his role as deputy director for the department’s emergency services mobile communications program.

Slade miscarried her baby on Christmas Day, “but it was not suggested to be related to the incident,” reported The Mirror. The process goes on.