Fresh hope for women jailed for killing their children

Six mothers jailed for killing their babies have been given new hope of release from prison, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Sources say one of the cases being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission is that of Donna Anthony, who was jailed for life six years ago for the murders of her two children aged 11 months and four months.

All six cases - which could be sent back to the Court of Appeal - hinge on expert evidence that has been brought under scrutiny after a series of murder trials involving infant deaths.

It is the first time the commission has been able to consider the cases of parents convicted of killing a child without there being new evidence or new issues that might lead to a fresh appeal.The six applications were a result of a Court of Appeal judgment earlier this year, which quashed Angela Cannings's conviction for killing two of her children and suggested some guilty verdicts may have been based on unreliable expert evidence.

The three Appeal Court judges dismissed medical expert Professor Sir Roy Meadow's "law" on cot deaths that "one in a family is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder".

Sir Roy's discredited theories were the basis for the cases against two other mothers, Sally Clark and Trupti Patel, who were also later cleared.

After the Cannings judgment, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith ordered a review of 258 similar cases where a parent was convicted of killing a child under the age of two in the past 10 years.

Twenty-eight cases were identified by Lord Goldsmith, who wrote to each one to tell them they had an opportunity to apply to the CCRC to investigate whether the convictions were "unsafe".

The CCRC confirmed it is considering six cases.

Chairman Professor Graham Zellick, said: "Our main job is to review the cases of those who feel they have been wrongly convicted of criminal offences, or unfairly sentenced. We do not consider innocence or guilt, but whether there is new evidence or argument that may cast doubt on the safety of an original decision.

"The new legal ruling about infant death has allowed us for the first time to consider cases where the conviction was made on the basis of medical expert opinion."