BB FANS

Mon Apr 11, 2005 05:19 PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother who spent six years in jail for murder after her two infant children died has been freed by London's Appeal Court, which has quashed her guilty verdict.
Donna Anthony, 31, was one of several mothers who spent years in jail on the testimony of a now-discredited doctor, Sir Roy Meadow, who appeared as an expert and argued that more than one unexplained infant death in a family must be murder.

New research has shown that natural causes can explain the death of a second child in a family where one child has already died, discrediting Meadow's so-called "lightning doesn't strike twice" theory.

"Donna was convicted of the worst possible crime any mother could be convicted of -- murdering your own babies. But there was no direct evidence that she had done any such thing," her lawyer George Hawks told reporters outside the court on Monday.

"She was condemned by theory based on suspicion which was masquerading as medical opinion," he said. "Donna is determined to campaign to ensure no other mother has to go through what she went through."

Three of the country's top judges ruled that the conviction and life sentence imposed on Anthony could not stand. The prosecution offered no opposition to her appeal, and there will be no re-trial.

An earlier appeal by Anthony, of Yeovil, Somerset, was dismissed in June 2000. Anthony has always maintained that the two babies, who at the time of their deaths were aged 11 months and four months, were victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, known as cot death in Britain.

Her case was sent back to the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) following consideration of fresh evidence from medical experts.

Anthony's appeal was one of 28 referred to the CCRC after the conviction of Angela Cannings was quashed in January last year. She had been accused of killing her two young sons, and Meadow testified in her case as well.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

There's nothing worse to a mother in this world than her child's death.
I wish that your judgement department has done right decision this time. But professionals (police, social workers, teachers, health-care-system workers, doctors...) are educated to see and find out the truth. I wonder where is so called common sense, because there are ordinary people who wants to do with other people and their families only harm with lies.

We had news today about same kind of subject:

"Surge in Repots of Child Abuse

Police last year investigated well over 100 cases involving suspected physical abuse of infants and children under the age of six. Althought the number of cases has grown, they believed it does not directly reflect an upsewing in abuse, but rather a greater willingness to report suspicions.

Not all children are safe even with their parents. Of the 111 cases of suspected physical abuse of small children investigated by police, most involved parents. And not all forms of abuse involve direct physical violence. There were also cases of children being drugged, most likely to quiet them or get them to sleep.

Still, Helsinki police say that unfortunately many cases of the serious physical abuse of infants and small children either go unnoticed or unreported.

They believe that last year's rise in the number of reports and follow-up investigations is a sign of a greater willingness to recognize the problem, not necessarily an upswing in abuse.

It is a problem though, almost everywhere. International statistics indicate that at least a quarter of all fractures sustained by children under the age of three are the result of abuse.

Some officials here are calling for the statute of limitations on the physical abuse children to be extended. Their reasoning is that like sexual abuse, physical violence can cause life-long damage, and its victims should be able to bring their abusers to justice -- even as adults years later."

http://www.yle.fi/news/id10018.html

I feel really sorry for this Lady that she has be convicted of something she didn't do and has lost 7 years of her life in Jail and now she comes out to nothing! That is so awful and not only that she's had all this on top of grieving for her children!

It's really hard (mentally) to work with people when you see that a mother (young or elderly) has been violently abused or when you see a child that is under 1 year of age for example with a broken leg and parents don't tell what really happened
Over here any violent act towards children (or other people) ar forbidden by the law - and your culture back home is not excuse from that in this golbal world.