Staffordshire woman jailed for faking two pregnancies and selling babies hoax

Libby Vernon, 23, was jailed for six months after convincing her partner she was pregnant twice, staging a gender reveal, and claiming she had sold his babies for £500.

Fake bumps, forged NHS letters and a gender reveal: the 13-month deception that ended in jail

Libby Vernon, 23, of Moss Park Avenue, Werrington, Stoke-on-Trent, has been jailed for six months and handed a two-year restraining order after magistrates in Workington, Cumbria, found she had subjected a man to 13 months of calculated deceit — including two fabricated pregnancies, forged NHS documents and a fake baby death certificate, bbc.co.uk reports.

The man, from Cumbria and in his 30s, cannot be identified. He told the court his family's lives had been torn apart and that he was grieving children who were never real but had felt real to him.

A false life built from the first night

Vernon met the victim online and the pair spent hours on a video call on their first night of contact. From the outset, she constructed a false identity: she claimed to be a partner in a nursery business and to own her own home with a mortgage. None of it was true, prosecutor Pamela Fee told the court.

She also told him she had previously been in a relationship with an abusive ex-partner and was already expecting his twins. Fee said Vernon appeared pregnant at the time they met in person.

Miscarriage, death certificates and a Facebook impostor

Over the following months, Vernon told the man she had lost one of the twins. She claimed to have a rare condition involving two uteruses and produced a fake NHS-branded letter apparently confirming the miscarriage. The couple grieved together, Fee said.

The surviving baby, named Athena and given the man's surname, was introduced via fake photographs sent in November 2023. "Someone to meet you," Vernon wrote. When he asked to see the child in person, he was turned away. Shortly afterwards, Vernon told him Athena had died of sudden infant death syndrome. She sent him a fake death certificate image. "I was devastated," the man said.

Vernon also created a false Facebook account and used it to send the man messages purportedly from her abusive ex-partner — messages that were hostile toward her and contained veiled threats.

Twin boys, balloon confetti and a fake bump

The relationship continued and became sexual. Vernon then announced a second pregnancy — twins again — and arranged for the babies' genders to be placed in an envelope after a scan, for a reveal party on 16 April.

"Confetti-filled balloons were burst by the couple in front of the victim's family and revealed Vernon was carrying twin boys," Fee said. The pair named them Ollie and Tommy, ordered personalised blankets with both names, and Vernon had a plaque made reading "daddy's dream team," complete with football shirts bearing the names Tommy, Ollie and Athena. Athena's shirt, Fee noted, had "angel wings and a halo above it."

In June, the man grew concerned about the twins' lack of heartbeats. He accompanied Vernon to a hospital and, despite her reluctance, persuaded maternity staff to carry out a scan. At that point, a fake baby bump was discovered beneath her clothing.

"Everything she had told him was lies," Fee told magistrates. "Scan photos were false, letters were false and everything she told him about being pregnant and carrying his children was a lie."

Ten guilty pleas

Vernon had previously pleaded guilty to ten charges: four counts of sending texts conveying false information, one count involving a false photograph, one of sending a false death certificate, and four of sending a false communication with intent to cause harm.

In mitigation, defence solicitor Mike Woolaghan acknowledged the "obvious question is why" Vernon had behaved as she did, adding that she herself had "struggled to understand the 'what' and 'why' of what she has done." The court heard she had described feeling "young and scared" and had expressed remorse to a probation officer, as well as apologising to the man and his family.

"Sophisticated, well-planned and intentional"

Lead magistrate Christine Williams said the bench had concluded the conduct amounted to "a sophisticated, well-planned and intentional series of deceptions designed to manipulate your victim." She said Vernon had caused serious harm to the man and his family, who were still grieving what they experienced as a genuine loss.

The victim, speaking about the babies, said: "I know they were never real but they are to me. They felt it to me and it's like I lost them. None of it makes sense and I don't think I'll ever fully get my head around it."

Source: The Sun