Hundreds of cases involving parents convicted in Britain of killing their babies are to be reviewed urgently following a court judgment yesterday.
The British Court of Appeal, giving reasons for its decision last month to clear a mother, Mrs Angela Cannings, of murdering her two baby sons, called for a halt to prosecutions where there was a reasonable possibility that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or "cot death" was the cause.
In a written parliamentary answer on the Cannings case, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, said he shared the unease expressed by the court on the dangers of relying solely on expert evidence when the cause of an unexplained death is in dispute.
He acknowledged the judgment would have "serious and far-reaching implications". He said that last month he asked for all cases potentially involving SIDS to be identified as quickly as possible.
"To date, some 258 convictions over the past 10 years have been identified involving the murder, manslaughter or infanticide of an infant aged under two years of age by its parent.
"These cases will be considered further as a matter of urgency to establish whether they bear the hallmarks of a conviction which the Court of Appeal judgment today has indicated may be unsafe."
Such cases could be referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) or the Court of Appeal, he indicated.
Lord Goldsmith added: "I am particularly concerned about cases where the defendant has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment which is still being served.
"We have so far identified 54 such cases which may involve SIDS. These will be accorded the highest priority.
"I have already spoken to the chairman of the CCRC and will be meeting him in the coming week to discuss how the review of these cases can be expedited.
"I have also asked the Crown Prosecution Service to conduct a review of the 15 ongoing cases involving an unexplained infant death of the sort described in today's judgment."
The CCRC said in a statement: "We are aware of the potential for a number of cases involving expert witnesses in this context to come to the commission, although we would expect that to be significantly lower than the headline figure of 258.
"Such cases are likely to involve a number of causes of death and a variable level of expert involvement and it will be important to identify those where expert witnesses were crucial to securing the conviction." - (PA)