Baby killer may be granted appeal

A solicitor sentenced to life in prison for murdering her two baby sons is to have her case reexamined after startling new evidence emerged.

Sally Clark's conviction has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which examines miscarriages of justice, after a key medical report was found, suggesting one of her sons may have died of natural causes.

Clark, 37, was given two life sentences in November 1999 for the murder of 11-week-old Christopher in 1996 and eight-week-old Harry in 1998. She maintained both were victims of cot death.

The report was unearthed by her husband Steve in a large pile of hospital files which his wife's defence team did not know existed until recently.

"We found it almost by accident, hidden away in a huge pile of papers that we finally managed to extract from Macclesfield Hospital late last year," Mr Clark said.

"We are delighted and believe that one of the worst miscarriages of justice of the past decade will now be remedied."

The files are said to show that Harry had a lethal bacterial infection which could explain the post-mortem examination findings which otherwise pointed to a smothering.

Christopher was originally thought to have died of respiratory disease, but suspicions that he was killed by his mother at the family's home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, emerged after Harry's death.

At Clark's first appeal, three judges upheld her double murder conviction. Clark was told the news of the find at Bullwood Hall prison in Essex where her husband says she has been in "living hell".

"I have always known that Sally is innocent - now we appear to have proved it," Mr Clark, a City solicitor, said. "Sally's first reaction when I told her was not to say, 'Thank goodness I'm coming home' but to burst into tears and then ask, 'Harry didn't suffer did he?'."

Mr Clark has been bringing up the couple's threeyearold son while his wife is in prison. A new appeal could be heard by the end of this year.