Nigerian Man Gets Nine Years for Forcing Abortion on Ex-Girlfriend in Ireland

A 28-year-old Nigerian man, Adeleke Adelani, has been sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in Ireland for forcing his former girlfriend to take abortion pills and unlawfully terminating her pregnancy.

According to reports from Irish media outlets, including The Irish Times and RTE News, Adelani committed the offence on St Valentine’s Day in 2020 at a house in Letterkenny, Co Donegal. He told his then-girlfriend that he would beat the nine-week-old foetus out of her if she refused to take the tablets.

The court heard that Adelani, a former student at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology, had met the woman on Snapchat.

The victim, now 26, had initially agreed to an abortion during a previous pregnancy with Adelani in 2019. However, when she became pregnant again in January 2020, she decided to keep the child after visiting a friend in London and discussing her situation.

When Adelani learned that the woman had skipped a medical appointment to keep the baby, he cancelled a planned holiday and lured her to a house in Ashlawn, Letterkenny, under the pretence that he supported her decision.

Forced Abortion and Arrest

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

A conversation played in court captured Adelani 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. 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.”

A police officer testified that Adelani was following a process he had researched, and that the victim was crying throughout the recording.

The woman became unwell after taking the tablets, suffering fever, shivering, cramps, and passing large blood clots. When Adelani left to get a pregnancy test, she phoned the police, who arrived at the house before 2.20pm on February 14, 2020. She was taken to hospital and treated at a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit.

Adelani was arrested at the scene. Officers seized his phone, which revealed internet searches on conducting at-home abortions and an audio recording of the ordeal.

Victim’s Impact Statement

Reading her victim impact statement in court, the woman described the lasting trauma caused by Adelani’s actions.

“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,” she said.

“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.”

She noted that the incident happening on Valentine’s Day deepened the pain, adding that Adelani’s denial after the crime caused her another level of harm, leaving her feeling invisible and alone.

“I lost friends through his denying what he did to me and my unborn child. I lost the support I needed to help me through that time. I will always grieve my child. I will always remember what was taken from me,” she said.

Despite everything, she stated that she had forgiven him.

“The forgiveness does not mean what he did was acceptable. It means I refuse to let what he did continue to control my heart and my life,” she added.

Defence and Sentencing

Defence counsel James McGowan SC stated that Adelani had struggled with mental health issues and drug misuse, and that his early teenage years were disruptive and chaotic.

In a letter read to the court, Adelani “heavily apologised,” claiming he now took full responsibility for taking away something that “can never be replaced. It was also my child, and a hole was also pierced in my heart.”

Sentencing Adelani, Judge John Aylmer described his actions as “extremely premeditated.” He noted as an aggravating factor that Adelani was on bail at the time for a previous offence.

The court heard that Adelani had no convictions at the time of the offence but had acquired considerable subsequent convictions and was well known to gardaí in the area.

He is currently serving a seven-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended for a separate offence, sentenced in November 2025. Later that same month, he received an additional 21-month sentence for another offence. Both sentences are running consecutively.

Judge Aylmer sentenced Adelani to 11 years in prison, with the final two years suspended, for causing the unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and five years, with the final 12 months suspended, for assault causing harm. The two sentences will run concurrently to each other but consecutively to the sentences he is currently serving.

Upon his release, Adelani will enter a bond for €100 and has been ordered to maintain good behaviour for two years.

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