A 37-year-old man who kicked a pregnant woman so hard that she lost her baby has been discharged in the trial.
Roger Bygrave was cleared of child destruction by the jury even though the woman lost her baby girl at 28 weeks after the incident.
According to reports, Bygrave claimed he had been acting in self-defense after the woman hit him in the face outside the Market House Inn in Dartmouth, South Devon.
The court heard how Bygrave had consumed ten pints of cider when a staff reprimanded him for taking his glass outside the pub.
The pregnant woman and her sister had tried to calm Bygrave down as he was already being ‘aggressive’ and ‘argumentative.’
Opening the case for the Crown Prosecution Service, Adrian Chaplin said that the woman had slapped the man in the face and Bygrave kicked her in response.
Bygrave said he did not know who he had hit and only lashed out in self-defense.
Plymouth Crown Court also heard that he grabbed the pregnant woman’s sister’s hair and dragged her to the ground.
The pregnant woman was rushed to a hospital after the incident where she had an emergency c-section.
Sadly, her daughter was stillborn.
According to reports, Bygrave cried when he heard that the woman had lost her child and told the police: “I would never hurt a pregnant woman, or even a woman.”
Mark Edwards, the pub landlord, said: “It was like something out of the Wild West. It was shocking.”
He also said that the 37-year-old kicked the woman “like a rugby ball,” adding: “He stepped backwards, gathered his thoughts and kicked her like he was taking a rugby penalty.”
“I now know I kicked this person,” Bygrave said. “I am just really gutted that this happened.”
He also told the jury: “I did not intend to kill the baby. I had no reason to want to hurt her or her child. I did not deliberately kick her in the tummy. I was defending myself. I did not see who it was.”
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