Judges demand review of law on baby killers

Three senior judges today condemned the law on baby killers as “unsatisfactory and outdated” and demanded a full-scale review.

They hit out even though they rejected an appeal by a mother of three who was jailed for life for murdering her 12-week-old son.

Lord Justice Judge, sitting with Mrs Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Leveson, said: “The law relating to infanticide is unsatisfactory and outdated, and appeal in this sad case demonstrates the need for a thorough re-examination”.

They questioned whether current law ref lects “modern thinking”, particularly over “the stresses imposed on a mother by the absence of natural bonding” with her baby.

They also raised the problems of a mother who killed but was unable to admit what she had done, possibly because of illness or being emotionally disturbed.

Chaha ’ Oh- Niyol Kai-Whitewind was jailed in 2003 for smothering her baby. She hoped that, like Angela Cannings, she would win her freedom. Her lawyers argued her case was similar to that of Cannings because it relied on the interpretation-of medical evidence. Lord Justice Judge said the case was important in clarifying how the ground-breaking judgment in the Cannings case should be interpreted and applied in future. However, the judges decided Kai-Whitewind must continue her life sentence.

They said there had been “ample” evidence for the trial jury to convict her and rejected new evidence at the appeal.

Kai-Whitewind, 29, killed son Bidziil at home in Birmingham in 2002 in frustration at his refusal to breastfeed. She called an NHS helpline saying the baby had blood in his nose and mouth and she could not feel a heartbeat-She denied murder at her trial. Her appeal lawyers claimed the conviction was unsafe because the trial jury had been forced to weigh evidence from one set of experts for the Crown against that of other experts for the defence. This was not a safe way of arriving at the truth, the lawyers claimed.

However, the Crown pointed out there had been an episode of bleeding into the lungs at least two days before the baby’s death. He had been put on a child protection register and placed in the care of his grandmother after breaking a leg a month earlier, but had been returned to his mother.