Mother cleared of drowning son

A mother of three accused of drowning her two-year-old son in their rural home more than a decade ago and then throwing his body into a pond to make it look like an accident, was today cleared of murder.

Sallie-Anne Loughran, 40, had denied killing toddler Thomas Hunt, who was found face down in water in the grounds of a country estate in Nottinghamshire in 1991.

Today it was revealed that Mrs Loughran was diagnosed with Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy almost 20 years ago. Discredited paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow made the diagnosis in 1986, claiming she suffered from the condition, which he believes leads mothers to harm their children.

Fresh doubt on the validity of his evidence has since prompted the Attorney General to order reviews of hundreds of cases of infanticide and, although Professor Meadow never testified against Mrs Loughran, campaigners believe his judgment also tainted her case. Loughran, a nurse, who also has two daughters, had been accused of faking the boy's death and laughing when confronted with his dead body.

A jury at Nottingham Crown Court had been told that Loughran, of Ibstock, Leicestershire, resented the close relationship Thomas had with his father, Paul Hunt.

The court heard that Loughran, who was also cleared of manslaughter, had allegedly admitted to members of her then husband's family to killing the child on St Ann's Manor estate, in Sutton Bonington.

Today Loughran, dressed in a black suit, clung to the bars of the dock as she was acquitted and exclaimed "Thank God" before bursting into tears.

Peter Joyce QC, prosecuting, had alleged that she had told her son's grandparents that she had carried out the killing. Jurors were told police launched no formal inquiry at the time and that two officers conducted only a rudimentary examination of the scene.

An inquest ruled that the boy's death on 24 April 1991 had been accidental, but detectives were prompted to open an investigation eight years later following complaints from family members.

Loughran divorced Mr Hunt in 1999. She was arrested years later, still saying the death had been an accident.

Mr Joyce said that Loughran claimed Thomas had climbed on to a chair and unlocked the back door of their home, walking 200 yards to the pond before falling in. Jurors heard that new samples taken from the boy's body suggested he could not have died in dirty pond water because of the lack of sediment present in his lungs.

Defence experts disputed the conclusions and Dr Nathaniel Carey told the court there was no evidence to suggest Thomas had not accidentally fallen into the pond. Thomas's father was not in court today.