Mother wins babies murder appeal

Angela Cannings walked free from a life jail sentence today after appeal judges cleared her of murdering her two baby sons.

The Court of Appeal in London overturned a jury’s verdict in April last year that Cannings smothered seven-week-old Jason in 1991 and 18-week-old Matthew in 1999.

Cannings, 40, a shop assistant from Salisbury, Wiltshire, has always insisted that the babies were victims of “sudden infant death syndrome” – cot death - which was recorded as the cause after her first child, Gemma, died at the age of 13 weeks in 1989.