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Guilty of Murder of Mother and Unborn Child

A man has pleaded guilty to both murder and child destruction after killing a heavily pregnant woman in Northern Ireland.

Sarah Montgomery, 27, and her unborn child were murdered in 2025. She was the mother of two young girls and had already chosen the name Liam Arthur for their new little brother.

Her murderer, Zak Hughes, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the judge, Madam Justice McBride.

A vigil was held for Sarah last year, where she was described as a “lovely” person, who “lived for her two girls who were so excited to have a baby brother join their little family in August”.

The officiator at Sarah’s funeral service said: “Sarah was so looking forward to being a mummy also to her baby, Liam Arthur. It is an utter tragedy that none of us has had, or ever will have, the chance to know him, to see him as a little boy or grown into a young man”.

She added: “Sarah and Liam Arthur and his sisters should have a future ahead of them, but that future has been brutally and unjustly snatched away from them, and from their family and friends.”

Head of Communications at the Christian Institute, Angus Saul, branded the attack “horrific”, but noted that the sentencing highlights a glaring inconsistency in the law.

“This case is a tragedy, but we can give thanks that the killer is finally being brought to justice for both of the lives he destroyed.

“However, this highlights a stark contradiction in our justice system. Earlier this year, the House of Lords voted to decriminalise women in England and Wales who kill their unborn babies at any stage of pregnancy. This means if a woman has had an abortion at the same stage of pregnancy, she would have faced no sanction whatsoever.

“So ‘child destruction’ is deemed acceptable and unpunishable if it is the mother herself who kills her unborn child.

“The unborn deserve protection, and yet politicians have been stripping this away, even when the perpetrator is the person who should have loved them the most.”

Assisted suicide legislation set to return to Westminster

Plans to legalise assisted suicide will be brought forward again at Westminster in the form of a Private Member’s Bill.

Labour MP Lauren Edwards came second in the Private Members’ Ballot last month, and says she will bring forward legislation that is identical to Kim Leadbeater’s Bill, which narrowly passed in the House of Commons one year ago.

By using identical legislation, Edwards could invoke the Parliament Acts. This would mean that if the Bill is voted through the House of Commons in an unchanged manner, the House of Lords – where the Leadbeater Bill stalled – could table amendments, but would be unable to reject it outright.

The Parliament Acts have only been used seven times in the last century, and never for a Private Member’s Bill.

Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s Bill falsely claimed that members of the House of Lords engaged in filibustering to block the legislation prompting Edwards to say: “It’s perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job.”

But opponents say the vast number of amendments was necessary, given the poor quality of the Bill. The Royal College of Psychiatrists, disability groups and hospices all opposed it, and while the Bill passed the House of Commons by 314 to 291, a number of MPs said they only voted in favour because they expected the House of Lords to make vital amendments