The wife of a hospital consultant convicted of drugging his pregnant mistress to cause her miscarry said today that she still loved him.

Dr Lowri Phylip spoke after Dr Edward Erin was found guilty at the Old Bailey of poisoning his secretary’s coffee and a bottle of orange juice. He still does not know if he is the father of the healthy boy born eight months after the poisoning attempt.

The physician forged prescriptions to obtain powerful drugs when Bella Prowse announced she was pregnant four weeks after their affair started at a Christmas party at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, west London.

Miss Prowse, 33, of Tulse Hill, south London, spotted bits of the crushed up pills in her drinks and alerted police before she drank them, the jury heard.

Erin, 44, insisted he had been set up by his lover who had demanded he obtain the drugs before using the pills to frame him for “financial rewards”.

He was remanded in custody yesterday to await sentencing on the charges which carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

His wife described the verdict as a “miscarriage of justice” and said that she still loved her husband despite his affairs.

“It is the worst day of my life,” said Dr Phylip, 41, at the couple’s home in Kensington, West London. “I can’t believe that the jury took the word of a woman who was out for revenge rather than a highly respected doctor.”

Detective Chief Inspector Micky Gallagher praised Miss Prowse, who has a 13-year-old daughter, for giving evidence in only the second prosecution of its type in the past 40 years.

“Bella is pleased that this is over and she now has closure,” he said. “She has been vindicated but it is not something she is ever going to forget.

“This was not a morality trial but clearly there were moral issues. Dr Erin used his expertise in pharmacology and ability to obtain drugs to concoct a recipe which could lead to the death of an unborn child.”

Erin is being kept on suicide watch on jail after telling colleagues that he would rather kill himself rather than spend another night in a cell after his arrest in February last year.

Before he was convicted Erin said he was concerned for the welfare of the child he had tried to kill, claiming that Miss Prowse regularly smokes cannabis, has a history of self-harm and has suffered from depression after an earlier traumatic abortion.

The consultant was cleared of placing the drugs in a cup of Earl Grey tea and faces a possible retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of procuring drugs to unlawfully cause a miscarriage.

Times Recommends

• The real-life adventures of Tintin the spy
• Our universities face a radical upheaval
• Doctor Who