Abuser killed heavily pregnant girlfriend’s unborn baby in harrowing attack
A domestic abuser who killed his unborn baby during a harrowing five-hour attack on his pregnant teenage partner has been jailed for 16 years.
Stefan Marin, 19, was convicted of the rare charge of child destruction after the assault on his then-partner, who was 17 years old and 29 weeks pregnant at the time.
He punched, kicked, strangled and scalded the victim after getting home from birthday drinks at the pub, telling her: ‘I’m making sure you do not have that baby.’
The young woman, who has since turned 18, sobbed as she told Friday’s sentencing hearing how she had begged for their unborn son’s life during the five-hour attack at Marin’s flat in Hull last March.
‘You beat me to the point that I can’t believe I’m alive. To be able to even stand here feels like a miracle. I thought I was going to die that night,’ she said.
The judge, Mr Justice Goss, detained Marin for 16 years with an extended licence period of four years.
Marin was found guilty of child destruction, causing grievous bodily harm, strangulation, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice after a trial last October.
The woman told Hull Crown Court how Marin had been controlling and abusive throughout the relationship.
Reading her victim personal statement, she said: ‘Before all this happened to me I was a loud, happy and very bubbly girl.
‘Yes, I’ve made mistakes but the day I found out I was pregnant I became a grown-up, young lady who was looking forward to becoming a mum.
‘Now my whole life has changed because of you.
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‘Every day, I see the scars on my body from where you assaulted me, and it’s a constant reminder of what happened.’
The woman said, following the attack, she has pains in her hands, arms and head, suffers from memory problems, cannot hear out of one ear because of a perforated eardrum, and may need surgery on her jaw.
She told Marin: ‘I can heal from the bruises and the abuse, but what I will never heal from is what you did to my son… my unborn defenceless son who had done nothing to you.
‘It makes me feel sick even just looking at you.’
The court heard Marin started a relationship with the victim in August 2024, and she fell pregnant soon afterwards.
Marin was ‘really pleased’ when he found out the baby was a boy, the judge said, but ‘tension developed’ between him and his partner throughout the pregnancy.
When he returned to his flat after birthday drinks with friends on March 13 last year, his partner was waiting for him.
He assaulted her ‘in various ways’ for hours, telling her ‘I’m making sure you do not have that baby’, before walking her to the top of an alleyway and leaving her there.
The court heard the baby died in the womb as a result of trauma to the placenta, and was delivered a few days later when labour was induced.
In mitigation, the court heard Marin had a ‘difficult’ upbringing and had previously been assessed as being a victim of modern slavery after being forced to sell drugs in the past.
The conviction for child destruction is only the fourth obtained by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales in the last 10 years.
Edmund Hall, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire & Humberside, said: ‘This was an appalling case in which an abusive partner carried out an unprovoked attack on his young girlfriend and their unborn child.
‘In the months prior to the assault, Stefan Marin had trapped his partner in an abusive, controlling and manipulative relationship.
‘The victim in this case has shown immense courage throughout the prosecution process in the face of unimaginable loss and trauma.’
Detective Chief Inspector Jon Cross of Humberside Police said: ‘The level of violence inflicted on this young woman was beyond comprehension, and the tragic loss of her unborn son is something no one should ever have to endure.
‘Marin’s actions were calculated and utterly inhumane. He showed no remorse at any stage of the investigation or court proceedings.’
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