Scientist's claim on cot death is flawed, Appeal Court hears

Mother accused of killing two of her baby boys was convicted under faulty evidence of discredited expert, defence claims

A woman jailed for murdering her two baby sons was wrongly convicted on the misleading evidence of a now-discredited medical expert, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.

Angela Cannings is serving two life sentences after being found guilty last year of smothering her boys when they were just weeks old.

But three senior judges hearing her appeal were told that the whole prosecution case depended on the evidence of the controversial paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow, who has since been severely criticised by the Court of Appeal over his theories on cot death and murder cases.

Mrs Cannings' appeal has been fast-tracked because the solicitor Sally Clark, also jailed for murdering her two babies on the basis of Sir Roy's evidence, was cleared on appeal. Both women claim they lost their children to cot death.

In both the Cannings and the Clark cases, the main evidence came from Sir Roy's "three in one" theory; that one cot death in a family was tragic, two gave grounds for suspicion and three was murder.

He claims there is a one in 75 million chance that two natural cot deaths would occur in the same family - a statistic which the judges in the Sally Clark appeal said was "manifestly wrong" and "grossly misleading." Another mother, Trupti Patel, was cleared in July of murdering three of her babies. Sir Roy also gave evidence in her case.

Launching Mrs Canning's appeal against conviction today, Michael Mansfield, for the defence, said: "Without Meadow, this case would not have got off the ground.

"The Crown's case was fundamentally to depend on Meadow. At the trial, we say the jury must have been impressed by this particular witness." But, Mr Mansfield, said: "Were the trial to take place now, it is unlikely that the Crown would call Meadow and if they did, it would have to be with a health warning attached to it.

"If there has now been an undermining of at least part of his credibility, some of these very important points have to be doubted now."

When Angela Cannings was convicted of smothering seven-week-old Jason in 1991 and 18-week old Matthew in 1999, Sir Roy was considered one of the world's most experienced experts in cot death.

His theories had helped to convict Sally Clark of murdering her two children and he has also been involved in several other cases of mothers accused of murdering their babies.

At Mrs Cannings trial, Sir Roy told the jury the pattern of baby's deaths and "near-miss events" in the family had convinced him that she had murdered the boys.

The jury was told Mrs Cannings had also been charged with murdering her first child, a girl called Gemma, when she was 13 weeks old in 1989, and of attempting to smother both of her sons on previous occasions. The charges relating to Gemma were dropped at the start of the trial but the details of her death, which was similar to that of her later brothers, were included as "background".

By the time of the trial, Sir Roy's "one in 75 million" statistic for two cot deaths in one family and his "three in one" theory were beginning to be questioned, and it had been agreed the figures would not be used.

But Mr Mansfield told the Court of Appeal that Sir Roy introduced them "by the back door", saying that three cot deaths in one family was "very, very rare" and dismissing suggestions that the babies could died from natural causes.

Thirteen medical experts brought by the defence gave evidence that Mrs Cannings' three children could have died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and that Matthew appeared to be have low levels of a haemoglobin that enables the body to fight off bacteria.

Just two experts - Sir Roy and Dr David Ward-Platt, concluded the babies had been smothered. Mr Mansfield said the three-in-one theory had "pervaded" the jury and "bedevilled" the case because Sir Roy appeared to be the most experienced and respected.

Mrs Cannings, 40, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, sat in the dock at the appeal court as the case was outlined. Her husband Terry and several members of her family were also present.

The three judges were told that a string of witnesses had told the jury that Mrs Cannings was a loving and attentive mother who had been devastated by the deaths of her babies. She had no history of any mental problems and when the children had first died, the country's top pathologists had conducted post-mortem examinations and either returned conclusions of SIDS or unknown causes.

"Nothing in the background and nothing in the family history suggests that this was a woman bent on killing," Mr Mansfield said.

There was no forensic evidence the babies had been smothered, such as broken blood vessels in the eyes or bruising around the nose.

But the evidence of Sir Roy had left Mrs Cannings with the task of trying to say she had not murdered her children when she couldn't say what the cause of their natrual deaths could be, said her barrister.

"It was impossible to overcome the prejudice which exists - then there is the three-in-one theory," he said.

The appeal is expected to last five days. As well as the controvresy surrounding Sir Roy, Mrs Canning's appeal centres on new evidence which suggests her children may have have inherited a genetic flaw that left them with a fatal allergy to cows milk. All died shortly after being fed.

Sir Roy is already being investigated by the General Medical Council .

SUCCESSFUL APPEALS

SALLY CLARK

Ms Clark, a solicitor from Wilmslow in Cheshire, served three-and-a-half years in prison before being cleared of killing her two young sons at the Appeal Court earlier this year.

At her trial in 1999, one of the main prosecution witnesses, Professor Sir Roy Meadows claimed that the chances of two children in a non-smoking, middle class household dying from cot death was "one in 73 million", a claim since rejected by the appeal court judges as "manifestly wrong" and "grossly misleading". The original trial did not hear evidence that one of Ms Clark's sons had been suffering from a potentially fatal infection at the time of his death.

TRUPTI PATEL

Ms Patel was acquitted of the murders of her three babies after a six-week trial at Reading Crown Court in June this year. Her sons Amar and Jamie and daughter Mia were all less than three months old when they collapsed and died at home in Maidenhead between 1997 and 2001. During Ms Patel's trial, Professor Sir Roy Meadows gave the view that "two cot deaths is suspicious, three is murder". But the court heard that the deaths might have been the result of the genetic heart disorder Long Q-T syndrome after Mrs Patel's grandmother gave evidence that five of her twelve children had died soon after birth.