A drunk pubgoer has been cleared of deliberately kicking a heavily pregnant woman in the stomach so that she lost her unborn daughter.
Roger Bygrave, 37, kicked the 28-weeks pregnant woman in a scuffle outside a Dartmouth pub on Valentine’s Day last year.
She was rushed to Torbay Hospital where her
stillborn baby was delivered by emergency caesarean in the early hours of the following morning.The fight broke out after Bygrave, who had downed at least 10 pints of cider that evening, refused to put his drink into a plastic container and was reprimanded by pub staff.
The victim intervened to try and calm things down. She then slapped the man but he retaliated by kicking her in the stomach.
Bygrave became visibly upset as he was told the baby had died after his arrest. He said he ‘would never hurt a pregnant woman, or even a woman’.
During a week-long trial at Plymouth Crown Court, the defendant explained he was acting in ‘self-defence’ and was kicking out blindly.
He denied willfully kicking the pregnant woman to her lower abdomen with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, causing the child to die before she had an existence independent of her mother.
Bygrave, from Dartmouth, pleaded not guilty to child destruction and was today acquitted by a jury after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
However, jury members failed to agree on two other charges he had denied rising out of the confrontation outside the Market House Inn that Friday night.
Bygrave is also accused of assaulting the mum-to-be, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and assaulting her sister, causing actual bodily harm.
Judge Peter Johnson discharged the jury after almost seven hours of discussions.
The Crown Prosecution Service will return to court on Thursday to announce whether a retrial is sought on the assault charges against the women.
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