Angela Cannings

[norma]

How on earth must she be feeling today.
Just to wish her all the best after what she has been through.

shes very local to here and common belief ois that she was innocent

um whats happened?

Another cot death conviction overturned, Beetroot.

One thing that really upsets me in these cases and it's always mentioned is that one of the reasons they were convicted is that the mother was the only one there at the time of death. That isn't exactly unexpected is it?! It's pretty common for a mother to be the primary carer for a very young baby and not unlikely that she would be the only one in the house if tragedy struck!

It makes you wonder if they will find a genetic link for some forms of cot death and how many other parents are sitting in jail because it was assumed they murdered their babies

Have a look here .

georgina it makes you wonder if it is genetic in some cases, doesnt it?

meant to add it must be awful for history to repeat itself like this in a family.

Beetroot - Angela Cannings is another mother convicted on dodgy statistics involving cot death.

here's a link

I take it she has been released then? Fantastic news. I think it was the same "expert witness" in this case as in the other two (or at least in the Sally Clarke case). I hope he is being investigated.

damn. takes me too long to type these days!

Yes, I can't imagine what that poor family must have gone through. Not only to have lost two precious babies in that way, but then have to go through the ordeal of being accused and convicted of their murder. It's not something you are going to ever fully recover from, is it?

Thank God for that. And even if a mother really had "murdered" her baby, she doesn't belong in prison. She is probably very, very ill

Good luxk to her and her family as they try to rebuild their lives after all this tragedy. I have no idea how they are coping with all this. I wish them all the best.

I hope she can start to put her life together.

Although the horror of what she went through must be almost too much for a person to bear. I cannot imagine the pain of loosing three babies like that.

I felt bad enough after an ectopic and I didn't hug or hold or get to love that baby.

this story is every womans worse nightmare
very sad

Time for this "expert" to justify his reasoning that put Angela and those other women behind bars at such a horrible time.

sorry that smiley was not meant at all, oh I feel so bad. it was meant to be a sad face.

Apparently the expert (Roy Meadows) is the first one who identified & named "Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy" -- I think that's supposed to be the psychological malady that the mothers suffered from that drives them to seek attention by killing...

In Sally Clark's trial he also gave the 1:73 million stastistic of 2 cot deaths in one non-smoking family, which is only credible as long as you accept there's no genetic risk factor for cot death. In this case Roy M. said that it was very unusual for a baby to be seen healthy and then found dead from cot death very soon afterwards; even I know that is rubbish. Cot death babies sometimes die peacefully asleep in their parents' arms. It's horrible. So I can see why RM's evidence is being widely rubbished.

I'm not supposed to say this in this thread, but I'm not convinced of Angela Cannings innocence, though. I just would expect that if there were a genetic link, then multiple cot deaths in single families should be more common than they actually are.

She lost 3 not 2 babies. Was only prosecuted for 2 though.

I'm gald someone else thinks that, I know its difficult to imagine but babies are killed every week here in the UK by thier parents/cares, my DH has some unspeakabe cases through his hospital

When I worked in a children's hospital there was a case of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy and a couple of my colleagues who witnessed what this mother did had to give evidence. So I know it exists.

I think Roy Meadows has just given the defence teams of mothers who have harmed their children ammunition while destroying the lives of mothers whose only "crime" was to lose a baby! Not a crime but you know what I am getting at.

friends ds went to nurery with her eldest daughter who was in tears all day every day.

MOhter could only visit her/pick her up at nursery with someone else...

Apparently there has been a case (it was featured on R4 evening news this week, I missed the item but heard responses to it) where a mother lost one baby to cot death and because of Roy Meadows' evidence a subsequent baby was removed from her at birth and taken for adoption. This was several years ago. But he, it seems, does not have to defend or justify what he has done.

I'm sure there are genetic links - perhaps a milk allergy, perhaps something else. There are cases even in Royal families where dozens of children die in infancy for no obvious reasons. History is packed with them. Some families raise ten kids to adulthood, others lose 17 in infancy. I don't think anyone is accusing Queen Anne of infanticide. I think there are reasons why babies die in early infancy that have nothing to do with the mothers.