Another Roy Meadow trial mother has been freed - this from the Sunday Mercury :
How could have I killed my babies? Aug 8 2004
By Fionnuala Burke, Sunday Mercury
Julie Ferris enjoyed her first full day of freedom yesterday and said: ?My nightmare is over - now I can start rebuilding my life.?
Then the 34 year-old whispered softly: ?I loved Hayley and Brandon so much. How could they ever have believed that I killed my babies??
Julie, from Aston in Birmingham, was charged with the murder of her two children in December, 1998.
Nine month-old Hayley died in 1993 and doctors originally suspected that she was a tragic victim of cot death.
But when Brandon also passed away in May, 1998, at the age of eight months, the loving mum was arrested.
The case against her was eventually heard at Birmingham Crown Court in June, 2000.
But Julie, who has learning difficulties, was forbidden from making a plea and arguing her innocence because prosecutors claimed she had a mental age of just six years old.
She was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after Professor Roy Meadow, the now discredited paediatrician, testified that he believed Julie had smothered her children.
The Sunday Mercury became the first newspaper in Britain to raise doubts about the case in March, 2001, when we launched a campaign to win Julie a retrial.
We had discovered how her children could have been victims of a rare form of epilepsy, which runs in the Ferris family.
We also traced new witnesses who said that they had seen the children having fits before their deaths - while Julie was out of the room.
Our investigation led to new solicitors being appointed in the case and in the summer of 2002 Julie was finally released on bail pending a fresh trail due to take place in November this year.
But on Friday afternoon her solicitor received a letter from the Crown Prosecution Service stating that all charges had been dropped.
She was finally a free woman - judged innocent at last.
Now the tragic mum could win a huge compensation pay-out for the four terrible years she suffered in custody.
Last night Julie, who has had the names of her babies tattooed on her arm, said: ?Prof Meadow is the one who should be sectioned.
?I was detained under the Mental Health Act and spent four years in bail hostels, secure units, hospitals and in prison.
?I was dragged around the country, miles away from my family. I was branded a child-killer and beaten up by other inmates because of what he said.
?At one stage the authorities even told me I would never be free unless I agreed to be sterilised to stop me having more children.
?I refused because I knew I was innocent.?
Julie, one of 13 children, lives with her 72 year-old mum Mary, who has stood by her throughout her ordeal.
Her sister Betty, 50, who has led the campaign to clear Julie?s name with the help of the Sunday Mercury, said: ?This has split our family.
?People trust what doctors and police officers say, but I always knew how much Julie loved those kids and I knew she would never harm them.
?She has been to hell and back because these so-called professionals failed to do their jobs properly. They have scarred my sister?s life forever.
?She had to be put on 24-hour suicide watch while she was in prison because she was so traumatised. She has tried to kill herself on several occasions.
?We were never going to give up until Julie?s name was cleared.
Thank God it finally has been. But we?ve got a lot of work to do to help her get fully back on track with her life.?
Julie had taken Hayley and Brandon to hospital on a number of occasions after they both suffered convulsions.
A post-mortem examination into Hayley?s death found she that had choked on her own vomit from a fit.
But pathologists also noted that blood was found in her nostrils, which subsequently raised suspicions and an open verdict was recorded at an inquest.
No full inquest has ever been held into the cause of Brandon?s death. Yet neither baby had ever appeared on a social services register of children at risk and it was only after Brandon died that Julie was arrested.
Julie was initially charged with double murder and remanded in custody. The charges were later reduced to manslaughter.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told that she had ?severe intellectual limitations? that meant she ?could not participate in any meaningful sense in a trial?.
Nonetheless, the jury was asked to determine whether Julie had killed her children in a sub-sequent trial of the facts.
They decided that she had. She was made the subject of a hospital order and detained indefinitely.
Evidence given by Sir Roy Meadow is said to have heavily influenced their decision.
The former president of the British Association of Paediatrics testified that Hayley and Brandon showed classic signs of being smothered.
Asked what the chances were of Brandon dying from an epileptic fit five years after Hayley died the same way, Meadow said: ?It is very unlikely.?
Testimonies from the so-called ?expert witness? also helped secure the convictions of innocent mums Sally Clark and Angela Cannings. Both have subsequently been cleared of killing their children.
The collapse of the cases and criticisms of Meadow?s evidence by the Court of Appeal recently led the Attorney General to order a review of 258 child-protection cases he had been involved in.
The retired 71 year-old is also being investigated by General Medical Council.
Last night Julie recalled her ?trial?. ?I couldn?t believe what was going on,? she said.
?They were talking about me as if I wasn?t there and there was nothing I could do.
?I was so upset that Brandon and Hayley had died and they were trying to say it was my fault.?
The Portia Campaign, which fights for victims of injustice, said Julie never got a fair hearing because she was banned from giving evidence due to the ruling on her mental age.
Following the Sunday Mercury?s ?Justice For Julie? campaign, she won a judicial review of her case in London?s Court of Appeal.
Her new trial was due to take place in November but on Friday she received the phone call she thought would never come from her solicitor Andrew Wesley.
He told the Sunday Mercury: ?I have received a letter from the Crown Prosecution Service saying that, following a review, they are not going to pursue Julie?s case.
?There will now be one final court hearing to say officially that they will no longer be seeking to say that she was responsible for the deaths of her two children.?
Julie is looking forward to starting her life all over again.
?I can?t believe this battle is over, but I know we haven?t reached the end of the road yet,? she said.
?There are still many questions that need answering.
?Even on Friday, after I got the call from my solicitor, someone shouted ?child-killer? from a car as it drove past my house.
?But I and the people who really know me have always known the truth.?