More than two dozen parents may have been wrongly convicted of killing their babies, the Attorney General has revealed, suggesting that miscarriages of justice over cot deaths may be more widespread than feared.
In almost one in eight cases so far checked by Lord Goldsmith, the conviction has now been judged potentially unsafe. Among them are the cases of six women currently in jail for infanticide, and two locked up in psychiatric hospitals.
The government review was triggered by a string of high-profile cases - including those of Angela Cannings and Sally Clark - of mothers jailed for murdering their babies, only to be freed after medical evidence used against them was discredited. Both Cannings and Clark had insisted they lost their children to cot death.
Until now it has been thought Goldsmith's review would uncover relatively few similar tragedies: he announced in spring that a preliminary trawl of 100 of the most urgent cases had unearthed only five potentially dubious convictions.
However, he has now written to lawyers for another 19 defendants alerting them to a potential miscarriage of justice, bringing the total so far uncovered to 24. The final tally is expected to be still higher, with another 99 cases yet to be examined.
'This is exactly what we warned would happen,' said Penny Mellor of the Dare to Care parents group, which campaigns for parents falsely accused of harming their children.
However, the public furore over such cases has brought warnings of a witch-hunt against paediatricians, with doctors concerned that the pendulum has swung too far and professionals are now becoming frightened to diagnose abuse.
The Royal College of Pathologists has commissioned a review of the investigation of cot deaths, due to report in September. Chaired by the barrister Baroness Kennedy, it is expected to call for greater involvement of specialists in studying infant deaths.
The announcement from Lord Goldsmith came in a written statement slipped to the House of Lords on the last day of the parliamentary session. Lawyers for the 24 defendants have been notified that they should consider going to the Court of Appeal or the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.
Earlier this year the campaign to have mothers cleared suffered a setback when 36-year-old Maxine Robinson - held up as a potential victim of a miscarriage of justice after being convicted of the murder of two of her children on the evidence of paediatrician Professor Roy Meadow - confessed to being guilty of smothering a third.
The judge, Mr Justice Clarke, said that the case was a timely reminder that 'not all mothers in prison for killing their children are victims of miscarriages of justice'.
