In an attempt to kill his unborn child, Nicholas Leaning stabbed his 34-week pregnant girlfriend, Lauren Oliver, five times in the abdomen. Oliver was rushed to Scunthorpe District Hospital where she delivered her baby by emergency caesarean section. Amazingly, her child was unharmed.
Oliver shared more with the Daily Mail about the incident and how she was pressured to have an abortion. She said, “I found out I was pregnant, and when I told him he told me to I had to go and get an abortion, but I didn’t want to. He was nice at first saying “it’s not right”, but when I said I couldn’t go through with it, he got mad. He said he would kick it kick it out of me if he had to. He said I had to get rid of it but when I wouldn’t, he said he didn’t want anything to do with it.”
Leaning is a professional cage fighter and was in a relationship with Oliver for two years before rekindling his relationship with an ex-girlfriend.
When Oliver discovered she was pregnant, she demanded a DNA test to prove he was the father. Leaning immediately refused; and since she wasn’t going to have an abortion, he took matters into his own hands. Oliver shared with the courts the following about the attack:
“When I got back [home] I unlocked the door and I was just about to open it when I felt someone jumping up on me from behind. I looked down and I clocked the trainers straight away. I knew they were his as we had been in a relationship for 18 months and he lived at my house. I felt a stab in my stomach and I tried to push him off. He stabbed me five times. I felt a massive gush of blood between my legs and I thought my baby was dead.
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He wore all his clothes that he used to wear. I used to wash his clothes when he was working as a chimney sweep. All I could see was his eyes staring at me. The first stab took me down. I bent forward and then he pushed me and he was standing over the top of me. He was trying to get the knife in as many times as he could. I was shouting, “someone help me please”, and “Nick please stop it. Eventually he got up and ran away. It’s just sick.”
The prosecutor in the case, Simon Waley, shared that Leaning smiled before stabbing her for the fifth time. After he was taken into custody, he admitted he was on Oliver’s property the day of the attack but claimed she stabbed herself. Waley concluded, “It’s absurd that a 34-week pregnant Lauren launched an attack on her cage fighter ex-boyfriend and then went on to stab herself and her unborn baby five times in an act of spite against the defendant.”
In court, Leaning denied attempted murder, attempted child destruction and wounding with intent. However, after a six-day trial, the jury found him guilty of wounding Oliver and attempting to destroy her baby. Once the verdict was read, Judge Jeremy Richardson told Leaning more about his future. He said, “You are going to prison for a very long time. This is a very troubling case. Even with a guilty verdict to count two, the sentence will be a long time indeed. The facts of this case warrant that.”
He will be sentenced tomorrow, November 5.
