A woman who killed her unborn twins by injecting herself with drugs to induce their birth was jailed today after going on the run.
Faiso Sahil’s babies were due to be taken into care after birth, so to avoid social services she decided to try to make them arrive three weeks early.
Sahil, who trained as a midwife in her native Somalia, was taken into hospital on 8 April 2007 after complaining of severe pain in her abdomen.
She asked to be induced several times, and claimed she was having contractions, but midwives and doctors told her they could see no signs of labour and that the twins were developing healthily.
She was discharged two days later but re-admitted the same day.
She found bottles of the drug Syntometrine in a trolley in her hospital delivery suite and injected them into a cannula in her left hand in the early hours of 11 April.
Sahil, who was 37 weeks pregnant, thought the drug would induce labour, as a similar drug was used in Somalia and in the UK for this purpose.
The drug blocked the blood supply to her placenta, cutting off oxygen to the twins, who both died within 60 minutes. She then told consultant Simon Grant that her midwife Caroline Randall had given her the drugs the night before the twins died, leading to Randall’s arrest and suspension.
In May this year, Sahil, 35, of Ullswater Road, Southmead, was found guilty in her absence of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to 14 months in prison.
She was also sentenced to three and a half years after previously admitting child cruelty, for which she was being investigated during her pregnancy.
The two sentences are to run consecutively.
Sahil fled after her twins died, first to Finland, before being arrested in Sweden this week.
She was returned to the UK to hear her fate at Bristol crown court today.
After the twins’ stillbirths, Sahil claimed Randall had told her she would give her something for labour, and had taken two small bottles from a box in a trolley in the room, injecting them into the cannula.
Randall was suspended and arrested by police, but was never charged in connection with the case.
She was described as a conscientious, caring and competent midwife by colleagues giving evidence during Sahil’s trial.
Sahil had leave to remain in the UK for ten years and was receiving financial help and accommodation when she arrived, as well as English lessons.
Before arriving in the UK she had delivered babies as a midwife in Somalia and had worked for Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Delivering Sahil’s sentence in her absence in May, Judge Mark Horton said: “The defendant was well aware that social services were considering taking these two babies from her shortly after their birth.
“She decided that she was going to use every means at her disposal to prevent that from happening, that included using her knowledge as a midwife.
“This was concealed from the nurses to persuade them that she was having contractions so that she must have the babies early so that she could evade social services.”
He added the effect of the lie on Randall was devastating.
“This was a deliberate complaint made by the defendant to shift blame from herself to someone who was innocent.
“It is not just that this offence strikes at the heart of the English legal system, but it strikes at an innocent victim in Mrs Randall.”
Following the trial, Randall said: “This has been a truly devastating experience for me.”
Speaking after Sahil was jailed today, Detective Inspector Will White, from Avon and Somerset police, said: “This has been a successful operation on the part of the police in tracking down and arresting Faiso Sahil, working with police colleagues overseas and making the arrest using a European warrant of arrest.
“She was discovered in Sweden, living under a false name.”
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Source: The Guardian
