"I told him I had a miscarriage, that maybe he would be angry"
A student nurse accused of trying to snatch a premature baby from hospital claimed she lied to her ‘husband’ about her miscarriage because she was “worried he would leave her”.
Safia Ahmadei denies one count of attempting to kidnap between February 12 and 14, 2024.
She believed she suffered two miscarriages in the months before she allegedly tried to kidnap a newborn but never saw a doctor.
Ahmadei let her ‘husband’ – who she was not legally married to – believe she was still pregnant with twins after a second miscarriage before later lying about giving birth without him knowing.
She told him that one baby had died and the other was in a “poor condition” in hospital.
Ahmadei told Wolverhampton Crown Court:
“I was scared if I told him I had a miscarriage, that maybe he would be angry and leave me.”
Prosecutors said an “increasingly desperate” Ahmadei tried to kidnap a baby “who could pass for her own” from New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.
She was on placement at the hospital but not in the maternity ward.
After claiming one of the twins had died, Ahmadei “needed to produce a baby” so she allegedly befriended a mother within the neonatal unit.
She then allegedly tried to take the baby just weeks after telling her ‘husband’ she had given birth.
It was heard that Afghanistan-born Ahmadei came to the UK on a spouse visa in 2011.
She lived with her first husband and their two children in Wolverhampton before the couple separated.
After the separation, the nurse said she “started from zero”, which included learning English and taking a British citizenship test.
Ahmadei said she “suffered” during the marriage as relatives did not “allow” her to pursue educational courses and she did not have the same “freedoms” British women have.
Meanwhile, her estranged husband allegedly called family members in Afghanistan and Pakistan to “tell lies”, claiming Ahmadei was “using freedoms in a bad way”.
The ordeal left her feeling “disturbed mentally” but she stayed positive for her children.
Ahmadei claimed her husband “did not provide” for their children but her daughter later agreed to live with him.
Ahmadei later became close with a couple living near her Wolverhampton home.
After finding out they were having trouble conceiving, she agreed to carry a baby for them.
A Nikkah was carried out between Ahmadei and the man.
She explained: “In the Muslim religion, if the first wife cannot conceive or she doesn’t have a child, the husband is allowed to get married twice.”
Her second ‘husband’ said he would look after her.
In March 2023, Ahmadei became pregnant.
Ahmadei said: “[My second husband] rang the family. The family they were so happy because for him it was the first time he became a dad.”
However, she did not see a doctor as she was not legally divorced from her first husband and was “scared” of his reaction.
Ahmadei told him a few weeks later, which led to an argument.
The nurse said she started having “back pain” and was “not feeling well” before noticing “heavy bleeding”.
Sobbing, she said: “I had miscarriaged.”
Ahmadei admitted she did not seek medical advice as she had not previously “registered the pregnancy” but said a pregnancy test result was negative.
Ahmadei said: “I was really sad, I was really broken.”
Her second ‘husband’ was “angry”, blaming both women for the miscarriage.
Ahmadei said she fell pregnant a second time that same year, with a positive pregnancy test result confirming the news.
But on November 5, she went to A&E after suffering “bleeding”.
Recalling the incident, Ahmadei told medics she was 12 weeks pregnant.
A pregnancy test carried out by hospital staff was negative – something Ahmadei claims she had no knowledge of.
She then missed a follow-up appointment arranged by the hospital and did not tell her second ‘husband’ about the incident.
Ahmadei said she continued to believe she was pregnant and thinks she miscarried a second time while on a night shift.
She recalled feeling “really poorly”, experiencing “heavy bleeding and pain”.
Ahmadei called her second ‘husband’ who brought her a change of clothes before he left her in the hospital.
She described how she was “lying down in a visitors’ area” while experiencing “really bad” pain before eventually going home.
The nurse said she expected her ‘husband’ and his wife to contact her about why she needed clothes but they did not.
She added: “They were treating me like I was not a human. I did not hear anything from them. I was thinking, ‘Why, for the second time, am I destroying my life?’.”
Ahmadei confirmed she did not reveal she had miscarried a second time, with her ‘husband’ believing she was still pregnant with twins.
Ahmadei said she did not tell him as he was “so sad” the first time she lost their baby.
She agreed she was “not telling the truth” when she later said she had given birth.
Ahmadei said: “I told him I gave birth to two baby boys. One boy died.”
The baby which survived was in hospital because his “health condition was not OK”.
She added: “I knew I had lied to him, I did not want to make him more upset, him and his family.”
The nurse claimed it would have been “too much” to say both boys had died at the same time and had planned to say the second child had died “after two or three days”.
The trial continues.
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