- Conference
- 2004 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 22 January 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Conference congratulates Angela Cannings on winning her appeal in November 2003 against her wrongful conviction for murder for the tragic deaths of her children from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Conference applauds the appeal court judges for accepting the new medical evidence presented which clearly demonstrated a genetic link in cases of multiple SIDS, and it is to be hoped that as a result future cases will not see women subjected to the ordeal of a trial or even conviction on top of the trauma of losing their children in such tragic circumstances.
Conference also welcomes the questioning during the appeal of so-called expert medical evidence presented at Angela Cannings’ original trial, as well in the cases of Sally Clark, also cleared of murder on appeal, and Trupti Patel, acquitted at her trial, and which has now been shown to be seriously flawed, and following this appeal has led to the setting up of a medical inquiry by the General Medical Council.
Conference believes that the criminal justice system, and in some cases society at large, has been too eager to assume that women who lose more than one child to SIDS are de facto murderers and have been unwilling to consider other explanations. This has led to the unnecessary and traumatic ordeal of trial and imprisonment and a failure to recognise what it has been like for these women to lose their children, denying them the opportunity to grieve for them in the normal way, and come to terms with this loss as best they can.
Conference agrees that the genetic explanation for SIDS within a family must be the starting point for all future cases and calls upon the National Women’s Committee to publicise all relevant information on this phenomenon through all available channels and seek support for this throughout UNISON and the wider trade union movement, and to support appropriate campaigns for the release of other women convicted of murdering their children on now questionable medical evidence.