Man who forced woman to take abortion pills in Letterkenny jailed for nine years

Warning: Some readers may find the content of the below story distressing.

A man has been jailed for nine years after forcing a woman to take five tablets, which caused the termination of a pregnancy.

In a landmark case at Letterkenny Circuit Court, Adeleke Adelani was sentenced by Judge John Aylmer. The sentence for such an offence is believed to be the first to be handed down in the Republic of Ireland.

Adelani, who is already serving a lengthy sentence in Castlerea Prison, can now be identified as the man behind the shocking crime after the victim asked that his name be published. 

The 28-year-old with previous addresses in Letterkenny, dressed in a grey jogger tracksuit, stood emotionless in the dock as his fate was handed down.

The victim, who was supported by family and a Garda liaison officer, was present in court.

The terrifying incident occurred at a property in Letterkenny on Valentine’s Day, 2020.

Adelani locked the terrified woman in a room after forcing her to take the tablets, which induced the abortion of a nine-week foetus.

Judge Aylmer said the actions of Adelani were “extremely pre-meditated” in that he had done a “great deal of internet research” beforehand

“It was something you had planned carefully,” Judge Aylmer told Adelani, who he said had “lured” the woman up to Donegal on a pretence that they would engage as a couple and have the baby together.

Judge Aylmer said that Adelani was “fully aware” of the woman’s “express desire” to keep the baby.

He said the act of the forced termination of a foetus was “an extreme act of physical and emotional violence” which was accompanied by threats of extreme violence to the woman, who he told he would “beat that kid out of you”.

“You ignored her obvious distress,” Judge Aylmer said. “Her tears were audible in the recording you made.”

Judge Aylmer said it was clear that the victim had suffered “an appalling emotional trauma” and added that it was difficult to contemplate a more serious offence contrary to this statutory provision.

Noting that Adelani was on bail for another matter at the time of the offence, Judge Aylmer said the offending was very much at the upper end of the scale and merited a starting point of 12 years imprisonment with the assault causing harm charge meriting five years imprisonment.

In mitigation, the judge said that Adelani was before the court on a plea of guilty, albeit that the plea arrived on the second occasion the matter was listed for trial.

Adelani has been using his time in prison well while he wrote a letter to the victim which Judge Aylmer said showed a significant element of victim empathy. He said that Adelani was a young man of 22 when he committed the offence.

Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of 11 years for ending the life of a foetus and four-and-a-half years for the assault causing harm.

Judge John Aylmer. (North West Newspix)

Given that Adelani is already serving a lengthy sentence and, having regard to the totality principle, the final two years of the sentence were suspended on the defendant entering a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years after his release.

Adelani must also go under the supervision of the Probation Service for a period of 18 months following his release. 

Adelani was before the court on a charge of unlawfully ending the life of a foetus contrary to section 23.2 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. The charge relates to administering, supplying or procuring any drug, substance, instrument, apparatus or other thing knowing that it was intended to be used or employed with intent to end the life of a foetus, or being reckless as to whether it was intended to be so used or employed.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting the woman and causing her harm, contrary to section three of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997. Charges of making threats to kill or cause serious harm and false imprisonment were marked as taken into consideration by the court.

In November 2025, Adelani was jailed for five-and-a-half years over another incident during which he threatened to cut a terrified victim as he held a knife to his neck, before forcing him to transfer €2,500. Later that month, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison for laundering more than €100,000 as part of invoice redirection scams.

Garda PJ Folan outlined this case to prosecution barrister Mr Paul Greene SC, with Ms Fiona Crawford BL and instructed by State Solicitor Mr Kieran Dillon. 

Gardai arrived at what was believed to be a domestic incident just before 2.20pm.

A woman told Gardai that a man had forced her to take five misoprostol 200mg tablets to procure an abortion and he also made threats that he would force an abortion with violence.

The woman was locked in a bedroom of the house, but later made her escape.

She had met Adelani via Snapchat and fell pregnant in October 2019. They made the decision together to terminate that pregnancy. The court heard that the woman received assistance from a GP who gave her prescribed abortion tablets.

In January 2020 she became pregnant again by Adelani. This time, she wanted to think about whether or not to have an abortion and, after visiting a friend in London, she decided that she wanted to keep the child.

Adelani was due to go on a holiday on February 7, 2020 but after the woman skipped an appointment with her doctor on February 6 - as she wished to keep the child - Adelani cancelled the holiday. Garda Folan told Mr Greene that Adelani led the woman, by text, to believe that they would have the baby together and that he was interested in the pregnancy.

Adelani invited her to come to his house in Letterkenny and she travelled by bus, arriving at 2.30am on February 14.

Adelani recorded a conversation on his phone and a 40-minute recording was made available to the court.

Adelani refused to provide Gardai with the pin number for his phone and it took four years for them to gain access to the device. When unlocked, they found a trail of Adelani’s web history showing that he had sought information about how to conduct an at-home abortion.

Adelani told the woman at home stage as he gave her tablets: “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.”

Garda Folan said that the woman had “very little to say” during the recorded conversation as she was crying throughout the ordeal.

After 20-30 minutes, the woman felt the tablets having an effect. She felt “feverish, shivering and cramps in her stomach” and she was said to be “in great pain. After going to the toilet, the court was told that the woman passed “large clots of blood” and began to feel the cramps decreasing.

Later, the man went to buy a pregnancy test and when he left the woman contacted Gardai.

The woman underwent a procedure to extract what remained of the foetus and was examined in a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU).

Adelani was taken into Garda custody and interviewed four times, but did not make any admissions.

“He was non-compliant,” said Garda Folan. “He did not associate with her at all.”

Last week, the woman, who is now 26 and is in a new relationship, addressed the court with a powerful and emotive victim impact statement.

“When he wrongfully imprisoned me and caused the termination of my nine-week pregnancy, he took far more than my freedom,” she said.

“He took my child. He took my sense of safety. He took a future that I had already begun to plan and love. 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 said that the fact that the incident happened on Valentine’s Day made her pain “even deeper” as a day to celebrate love became a day Adelani showed hatred to her and her unborn child.

She said: “While the world celebrated love, I was trapped, terrified, and losing my baby at the hands of someone I thought I could trust instead chose violence and not care.”

The victim said Adelani’s denial caused her another layer of harm and said she lost friends through the process.

“During COVID, when the world was already isolating, I carried this trauma largely by myself,” she said. “I tried to distract myself just to survive the grief, the shock, and the emptiness left behind by the loss of my child and the life I believed I was going to have.”

The woman said healing and faith have helped her to open her heart again. She said that, arising out of her faith, she has forgiven Adelani.

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

She said that the impact of the crime remains and added:  “I will always grieve my child. I will always remember what was taken from me. Healing does not erase the loss, it only means I learned how to live with it. I am here today to ensure justice is served and to honor my baby, my truth, and the strength it took to survive this. What happened mattered. My child mattered. And justice matters.”

Adelani’s barrister, Mr James McGowan SC, with Mr Sean McGee BL and instructed by solicitor Mr Rory O’Brien, said his client moved to Ireland from Nigeria when he was six.

The court heard that Adelani’s life was “chaotic and disruptive” through his teenage years, but that the defendant enjoyed good familial support.

Adelani moved to Donegal in 2018 and has completed a law course, but has struggled with his mental health and been engaged in cycles of excessive drug use.

Mr McGowan said Adelani was involved in mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu - something he wished to pursue upon his release from prison - and is now spending his time well in custody, where he is working as a gardener.

Mr James McGowan SC, barrister for Adelani. (North West Newspix)

In a letter to his victim, which was read in court, Adelani said he now takes full responsibility for his actions. 

He said he was “heavily apologising” for the pain he caused and added: “It was also my child and a hole was also pierced in my heart”.

He said: “The thought of the pain I caused weighed heavily. I am now summoning the strength to face you and say sorry; not because I got caught but because I took away something that can never be replaced.”

The court heard that Adelani’s current partner is now three months pregnant and the defendant said he wants to support his partner, raise his child and “be the man my family needs me to be”.

Adelani pleaded with Judge Aylmer for a second chance and his letter concluded: “I won’t take it for granted, if given.”