OT - Doubts grow on the shaken babies

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1415464,00.html

Doubts grow on the shaken babies

Glenda

Jailed parents are facing the chance of a medical and legal rethink

Donna spent her seventh Christmas Day in prison yesterday, serving a

life sentence for the murder of her two children. The festive period should

have been a hopeful one for her, because — after the years of being taunted

as a “baby-killing bitch” and having her Christmas dinner spat in — last

week Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, announced that Donna should be

freed on bail while her case is referred to the Criminal Cases Review

Commission.

However, the reality, says Penny Mellor, a friend of Donna’s and organiser

of Dare to Care (which campaigns on behalf of women who have been wrongly

accused of murdering their children), is that “Donna will still have been

very scared . . . she’s been in prison for so long now. It’s no good trying

to tell her it’s all going to be okay.”

Donna’s was one of nearly 300 cases that were looked at after the freeing of

Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of killing two babies. The appeal

court quashed her conviction last January: as a result, 28 cases are to be

looked at again because of “causes for concern” in the convictions.

Many of those cases were based on now disputed medical evidence. Munchausen

syndrome by proxy, a theory that says women cause or fake illness in their

children to draw attention to themselves, is now widely discredited but

evidence from its leading exponent, Professor Sir Roy Meadow, contributed to

the wrongful imprisonment of Cannings and Sally and the trial of

Trupti Patel, who was acquitted. Meadow, a former president of the Royal

College of Paediatrics, is due before the General Medical Council next year

on charges of serious professional misconduct.

But what has delighted campaigners is that Lord Goldsmith has also said that

he will “consider very carefully” what to do with a further 89 cases

identified as shaken baby syndrome (SBS) after the appeal court rules on

four joined cases in summer next year.

SBS has attracted less attention than Munchausen syndrome by proxy, but

those involved argue that they too have been condemned by a flawed medical

diagnosis.

“Finally we are beginning to investigate SBS properly,” says Rioch

-Brown, who founded a support group called the Five Percenters for

parents accused of shaking their babies. “This is what we have been trying

to achieve for 10 years, to get to grips with the research and come to a

consensus.”

The first conference on SBS, held in Edinburgh in 2003, claimed that nearly

one in five cases could be wrongly diagnosed. And campaigners say they are

particularly worried about cases in the family courts where the burden of

proof is less — only the “on the balance of probability” is needed, rather

than “beyond reasonable doubt”. (They point to the recent review of all

28,500 recent family court decisions ordered by Margaret Hodge, the minister

for children, where children had been taken into care for various reasons.

It found only one case where the care order should be changed.)

Supposed “classic” signs of shaken baby syndrome are brain bleeds, bleeds

behind the eye and fractures. But doctors often fail to agree on how many of

these symptoms must be present before it is clear that the injury is caused

deliberately. “Research has shown that injuries producing these symptoms can

be caused by trauma at birth or by falls,” says -Brown. “I am not

saying babies aren’t shaken, but that isn’t the only explanation.”

She argues that a new protocol is needed: that any child who comes to a

hospital with suspicious injuries should be seen by a paediatric specialist

within 24 hours and that the specialist should review the case in 14 days.

“It would mean that parents are protected against wrongly being accused of

abuse — but it would also mean that life is much easier for paediatricians

too,” she says.

The Royal College of Paediatrics revealed earlier this year that a third of

posts as designated doctors for child protection were going unfilled — as

paediatricians feared complaints or worse if they undertook such work.

Professor Alan Craft, president of the college, says that paediatricians are

addressing concerns: in the next few weeks the college will send out

guidance to its members on how to spot all forms of child abuse and from

next year a new training course will begin. Eventually the idea is that this

training will become compulsory, perhaps with a refresher every five years.

And the government’s chief medical officer, Sir Liam son, is also

studying the system of expert medical witnesses and the way in which they

give evidence. His report is due early in 2005.

This is welcome news, but for those who have been wrongfully imprisoned or

separated from their children there are no easy answers, and the

ramifications can last for years as they try to rebuild relationships — as

Donna may find in the future.

“Of course, the s are pleased to hear about last week’s developments,”

says Batt, a friend who wrote a book with the couple about their case.

“But every headline is a reminder of what they went through. They are

desperately trying to get on with their lives. For Sally, and Trupti

the most important thing is to try to forget what happened. But all three

have suffered terribly. For them there is no such thing as a happy ending.”