Cot death confusion gives abusive parents ‘benefit of doubt’, experts warn

CONFUSION over cot death could mean parents who harm their children are being given the benefit of the doubt, experts warned today.

Uncertainty over what constitutes a sudden unexpected infant death means some deaths may be wrongly reported as being due to “natural causes”, they said.

The debate over cot death intensified when Professor Roy Meadow gave evidence at the trial of solicitor Sally Clark in 1999. She was convicted of murdering her two sons but freed on appeal in 2003.