A man who forced his former partner to take abortion pills and unlawfully end her pregnancy before confining her in a room has been handed a nine year prison sentence in the Republic of Ireland, in a case that has shocked the community and highlighted the severity of coercive control and reproductive abuse.

Adeleke Adelani, 28, was sentenced at Letterkenny Circuit Court after earlier pleading guilty to unlawfully causing the termination of a woman’s pregnancy and assault causing harm, offences committed in County Donegal on Valentine’s Day 2020, after he forced the victim to take five misoprostol tablets and then locked her in a bedroom.

Judge John Aylmer described Adelani’s actions as “extremely premeditated”, and said he had researched how to carry out a termination in advance while knowing the woman wanted to keep her baby, luring her to his home on the pretence they would raise the child together.

Prosecutors told the court that the victim, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time, had made clear her wish to continue with the pregnancy, but Adelani threatened her with violence and forced the pills on her, recordings played to the jury showed, in which he can be heard saying:

“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.”

After taking the tablets the woman became unwell and began bleeding heavily, suffering cramps and fever before she managed to escape and contact gardaí, who took her to hospital for treatment.

Adelani was sentenced to 11 years for unlawfully ending the life of a foetus and five years for assault causing harm, with portions of both terms suspended, with the sentences running concurrently to result in an effective nine year term.

In a victim impact statement read to the court the woman said she had been left devastated by what happened, and that she would always grieve the child she lost, saying:

“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.”

Adelani had been due to stand trial in 2025 but entered his guilty plea before a jury was selected, and he is already serving a separate sentence for another offence, with the new term set to run consecutively.

Following the sentencing, Garda Inspector Paul McGee praised the victim for her “remarkable strength and resolve” in seeking accountability for the offences, urging anyone subjected to violence or coercion to seek help from authorities, saying such crimes “can and do happen in ordinary homes out of public view” and that protecting the vulnerable remains central to the work of law enforcement.