Childminder loses appeal over baby killing

A childminder in Britain lost her appeal today against her conviction for killing a baby in her care.

Keran Henderson, of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, had always protested her innocence over the death of 11-month-old Maeve Sheppard.

But today the Court of Appeal rejected submissions on her behalf that her conviction was “unsafe”.

Henderson, who was jailed for three years, has completed her sentence and was not in court.

A jury at Reading Crown Court convicted Henderson, a mother of two, of manslaughter by a majority of 10 to two at the end of a five-week trial.

The prosecution case which led to Henderson's 2007 manslaughter conviction was that injuries suffered by Maeve were caused by violent shaking, but Henderson, who had seven years' experience as a childminder and was also a Beaver Scout leader, claimed the child had a seizure while she was changing her nappy.

Henderson was in sole charge of Maeve when she was taken to hospital unconscious and critically ill with brain injuries in March 2005.

Henderson, who ran her childminding business from her home in Iver Heath, was hired in January 2005 to look after Maeve.