A paramedic who tricked a woman into having an abortion by spiking her during sex has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Stephen Doohan, 33, was married when he met the woman on holiday in Spain in 2021 and began a long-distance relationship.
In March 2023, the woman travelled to Edinburgh to see him after learning she was pregnant, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
The court heard that Doohan inserted an abortion drug in her vagina without her knowledge during consensual sex on 17 March 2023.
Doohan had previously pleaded guilty to sexual assault and depositing a drug into the woman’s vagina causing her to abort, and depositing with intent to cause her to abort.
On Monday at the High Court in Glasgow, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
The court heard that Doohan convinced the woman to lie to medics at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary because he thought he would be arrested if she told the truth.
The victim attended another regional hospital with her sister and was told that she was having a miscarriage.
The court heard that in May 2023, the woman complained to the Scottish Ambulance Service, which launched an investigation.
It revealed that on 14 March, the day the woman told Doohan she was pregnant, he used a work intranet to search for abortion drugs, the court was told.
Police were then called in.
Sentencing, judge Lord Colbeck said: “You put her through considerable pain over a number of days, and left her facing a lifetime of pain and loss.”
He also said Doohan caused “long-term psychological injury” to his victim.
