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How will I ever tell my son that his father tried to kill him before he was born?
Last updated at 01:52am on 04.03.08Safe in his mother's arms, Matan Abraham has everything to look forward to.
But a year ago, his very existence hung in the balance after his father tried to kill him in the womb.
Gil Magira, who had a phobia of fatherhood, decided to take matters into his own hands when his wife refused to terminate their child.
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Miracle baby: A healthy Matan Abraham with his mother Anat
After buying abortion pills on the internet, he crumbled them into her food.
Anat Abraham began bleeding and started contractions - and he calmly accompanied her to hospital.
But despite his attempts, the 11-week-old foetus survived. Mrs Abraham, 39, only discovered what her husband had tried to do after he confessed to his psychologist.
Last week, Magira, 36, was jailed for three years and nine months for the failed poisoning.
Now his wife, of Hendon, North London, has spoken out.
"You cannot imagine how wonderful it feels to hold my son,"' she said.
"I know how close I got to never having him.
"How will I ever tell him his father tried to kill him? He tried to terminate our baby, end his child's life before it had even begun.
"But, despite everything, Matan is here today."
Gil Magira was jailed for three years and nine months for poisoning his wife Anat Abraham with intent to cause a miscarriage
Magira was an eccentric virgin when the couple married in 1999. He believed he was "not enough of a man to be a father".
Mrs Abraham already had a daughter from a previous marriage and at first the couple, both Orthodox Jews, threw their energies into establishing a flourishing restaurant, Lemonade, and two bakeries in North London.
In 2004, they separated over Magira's refusal to start a family. But two years later, he announced a change of heart. And in November 2006, Mrs Abraham told him she was pregnant.
However, her husband was filled with panic and spent four months urging her to have a termination.
She refused - so in February last year, he gave her a breakfast sandwich laced with abortion drugs.
When she began bleeding, he took her to hospital feigning concern.
The next morning, he fed her more abortion drugs in a yoghurt. Again he accompanied her to hospital.
Although Mrs Abraham bled for two weeks, Matan, now eight months, survived. He was born two months premature, weighing 4lb, but was healthy.
"When I went into labour early I was so terrified he would be deformed because of what Gil fed me.
"As soon as I saw him and knew he was OK I just melted," Mrs Abraham, who is divorcing her husband, told the Daily Mirror.
Magira was charged with administering a poison with intent to cause a miscarriage.
Reader views (2)
"Phobia of fatherhood"? So now coercing someone to have an abortion is caused by a disease? Is this your professional diagnosis?
- Michele Shoun, Grand Rapids, MI USA
Praise be to God that this story had a happy ending! It could have been very tragic.
I question the advisability of telling the child that his father tried to kill him. What can be gained by revealing that to him? As they say, ignorance is bliss. It will be hard enough for him to grow up without his father around. Why compound his grief by telling him of his father's act?
- Darillyn, Southwick, USA
