Mother cleared of baby's murder

Last updated at 15:32 09 November 2004


A mother was cleared of murdering her four-month-old son today at a retrial which was ordered after discredited paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow gave evidence at the original hearing.

Epilepsy sufferer Margaret Smith, 39, who stabbed her first husband to death, collapsed in court today after a jury found her not guilty of smothering her baby son Keith at their home in Hull, in September 1994.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court was not told during the eight-day hearing that this was a retrial. The mother of nine had been convicted of Keith's murder in 2002, but cleared of killing her five-and-a-half month daughter Kelly, who

died in 1992.

Her defence team won an appeal after showing Prof Meadow's evidence at the original trial at Leeds Crown Court was "prejudicial" and should have been inadmissible.

Mrs Smith, from a family of travellers originally from Ayrshire, Scotland, was accused by a child witness of smothering Keith.

The girl, aged seven at the time, claimed she saw Smith put a pillow over his face to stop him crying.

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