'Mother murdered her two baby sons'

Two baby boys were murdered by their mother eight years apart, a court was told today.

Angela Cannings, 38, suffocated seven-week-old Jason in 1991 and four-month-old Matthew in 1999 as they slept in their cots, it is claimed.

She acted "against nature and against instinct," Winchester Crown Court was told. She struck when she was alone with the infants, it is alleged.

The brothers' sister Gemma also died suddenly aged three months in 1989 but Cannings has not been charged over her death. Gemma was the first born of four children for Cannings and her husband Terry. Another child had also suffered "an apparently life-threatening event" but had survived, the court heard. Both boys suffered unexplained lifethreatening emergencies before they died and were rushed to hospital.

Opening the trial, Paul Dunkels, QC, claimed she killed her sons "by smothering or suffocating them in some way by obstructing their nose and mouth so that they couldn't breathe". He added: "For a mother to attack her own children in this way is against nature and instinct."

Referring to Gemma, Mr Dunkels said: "Her death is not the subject of a charge of murder or any other charge. But her death is the backdrop against which you must decide what happened to Jason and Matthew."

Gemma died after being found "floppy and unresponsive" in her cot at her parents' home in Winterbourne Gunner in Wiltshire. A pathologist decided she had suffered Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, commonly known as cot death.

"That is an important term and one that you will hear much of in this trial," said Mr Dunkels. "It is used when a previously healthy child dies suddenly and unexpectedly and no cause is found." He said of Gemma's death: "Nothing in the history of her life or the cause of her death suggests her death was unnatural. However no cause of her death was ever identified."

He described how both boys had suffered "an acute life-threatening event" nine days before they died.

Mr Dunkels said: "It is the prosecution's case that each of these events was brought about by the defendant's actions. Each occurred when the babies were in the sole care of the defendant."

He said that none of the children suffered any life-threatening emergency when their father, a neighbour or any other relative was present.

Cannings pleads not guilty to the two murders. The case continues.