Eirwen Jenkins

Eirwen Jenkins died following an illegal operation.

A woman was convicted of using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage, but she was not convicted of her manslaughter or murder. The judge said, 'I am glad to be able to deal with you on the basis that the evidence does not establish that it was you who killed her, but it was dangerous and it was a serious crime. I am showing as much mercy as I can'.

When the judge asked why there was no charge of manslaughter in the case, the prosecution said, 'There was no positive evidence that the haemorrhage was caused other than naturally'.

The police were called to a house in Oakdale on 27 March 1959 where they found Eirwen Jenkins lying dead in a chair.

A post mortem showed that she had died from a haemorrhage, but the doctor was unable to say if the haemorrhage had been caused naturally or artificially.

Following the discovery of her body the police called at the house of a woman in Cefn Forest Avenue, Cefn Forest and asked her whether she knew Eirwen Jenkins. The woman said that she did, but she denied having gone to Eirwen Jenkins's home. However, when she was told that Eirwen Jenkins had died she became agitated and made a statement.

The judge said that the woman's statement to the police was an indication of the great shock that she had felt when told of Eirwen Jenkins's death.

In her statement she had said, 'I didn't know she was only 17. I could kill myself. I will never do it again. I started doing it when I was nursing at Cefn Mably'.

The woman had been a ward maid for five months in 1937 at Cefn Mably Hospital.

Eirwen Jenkins had died nine days after the illegal operation. She had been 4½ months pregnant at the time.

The woman that had carried it out was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.

When the judge sentenced the woman, he said, 'The wrong that you committed lies in this, that you have broken the law which is to protect women who are to bear children. It was an inherently dangerous thing you did and you did it with a woman who was four-and-a-half months advanced in pregnancy'.