Mother cleared of killing babies attacks witness box professor

A MOTHER in the UK cleared of killing her babies has launched an attack on the professor whose controversial expert medical witness helped jail her for murder.

Angela Cannings says in a television interview that she has been “permanently scarred” by her experience and attacks Professor Roy Meadow for assuming she was a murderer.

The professor, whose testimony formed the backbone of the Cannings trial and many other high-profile cases, faces a British General Medical Council professional conduct committee over allegations against him.

The clearing of Mrs Cannings of the murder of her two sons was the latest in a number of similar cases and prompted the British government’s review of cot death legal cases this week.

The cases could involve up to 5,000 people, some convicted of killing their children based on testimony from Prof. Meadow.

In an interview with ITV1’s Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme last evening, Mrs Cannings says of Prof. Meadow: “I listened to him give evidence. I was looking at a man who was assuming something criminal had happened.

“I couldn’t accept that he had never come to meet us to talk about the events and yet he was making all these assumptions that something criminal was going on.”

Mrs Cannings, 40, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, had her life sentence overturned by the British Court of Appeal last month.

Prof. Meadow’s evidence was also used in the high profile prosecutions of Sally Clark and Trupti Patel.

Mrs Clark’s 1999 conviction for murdering her two baby sons was overturned last February, while Mrs Patel was cleared of killing her three babies in June.

The professor has referred to Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, which suggests some mothers harm their children to draw attention to themselves.

Talking to the programme, Mrs Cannings says she hopes her successful appeal leads to others wrongly accused being freed.

“I would like to think that the result of the judgment is that in future cases like mine an investigation should happen but where there is no evidence for it (wrongdoing) then I believe it should not be taken any further and the families should be allowed to grieve and get on with their lives.

“I believe that the judgment was of great concern and that nothing like this should ever happen again.”