Suzanne Holdsworth conviction quashed

YES!!

Yes a positive result although my thoughts are with Suzanne, Lee and the girls, please stay strong the truth will out in the end!!!

Oh yes, the famous saying BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!

Great result xx

Hi to you Kat and welcome.xxx

So far - so good

Brilliant news on bail .Well done to all those supporting Suzanne and family.

Lee has asked me to pass on his thanks for all your support, he is racing up to Low Newton (Flash back for me!) to collect Suzanne, who has just been granted bail to go home-Jamielee is so excited that I couldn't get much sense out of her, screaming with delight.

I want to thank the social workers for turning the reports around so quickly to allow Suzanne home, especially the lead child protection worker in Jamielee's school. Heartfelt thanks for the professionalism and efficiency shown in the last three days.

Lee what a testimoiny to your ability as a parent to overcome adversity and keep your children's feet firmly on the ground, Jamielee is a credit to both you and Suzanne, God knows other children haven't faired so well.

XXX

Conclusion

Dr Rittey acknowledged that Professor Guerrini is an internationally acclaimed expert in epilepsy and that any theory advanced by him on this subject is entitled to very careful consideration.

Conclusions of medical experts on the cause of an injury or death necessarily involve a process of deduction, that is inferring conclusions from given facts based on other knowledge and experience. But particular caution is needed where the scientific knowledge of the process or processes involved is or may be incomplete. As knowledge increases, today's orthodoxy may become tomorrow's outdated learning. Special caution is also needed where expert opinion evidence is not just relied upon as additional material to support a prosecution but is fundamental to it.

"As knowledge increases, today's orthodoxy may become tomorrow's outdated learning..." - Lord Justice Toulson, in today's judgement.

That has to qualify for the title of saying of (at least!) the week

Well done to all involved with the Holdsworth case. Best wishes to the family.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/02/ukcrime.law

Babysitter freed from jail after court orders retrial on murder charge· Fresh doubts on cause of two-year-old boy's death

· Abnormal brain made him predisposed to epilepsy

Paul Lewis and Vikram Dodd The Guardian, Friday May 2 2008

Suzanne Holdsworth, who has been freed from prison three years after being jailed for life for murdering two-year-old Kyle Fisher. Photograph: Cleveland Police/PA

Fresh doubts emerged last night over the reliability of medical evidence in cases of infant homicides after a court overturned the murder conviction of a woman accused of battering a toddler to death.

Suzanne Holdsworth, 37, was freed from prison three years after being jailed for life for murdering two-year-old Kyle Fisher, a neighbour's child whom she had been babysitting at her home in Hartlepool.

Three judges at the court of appeal in London ordered a retrial in light of medical evidence that suggested the child could have suffered from an epileptic seizure. Referring to the use of medical evidence in the case, Lord Justice Toulson said that "today's orthodoxy may become tomorrow's outdated learning".

Questions were also raised about police conduct, after a detective who worked on the case said her concerns had been ignored. Sharon Birch, a former detective, said she had been "driven" from the Cleveland force after she called for witnesses who might have contradicted the police case to be interviewed .

Overturning the conviction, Toulson accepted that medical evidence required a "process of deduction" by experts. But he warned that "particular caution is needed where the scientific knowledge of the process or processes involved is or may be incomplete.

He added that the retrial would require a "high level of case management" to enable expert witnesses to meet outside of court, consult, and resolve differences.

Holdsworth's solicitor, Campbell Malone, told the Guardian the scientific understanding of infant head injuries was "constantly evolving".

"The decision [to order a retrial] raises issues of general application for a range of cases, including shaken baby syndrome, where the prosecution is underpinned by a heavy reliance on expert evidence," he said.

Two years ago a review of 88 cases of shaken baby syndrome convictions found only a handful where there was cause for concern, after speculation that dozens of people had been wrongly convicted.

The review was prompted by the quashing of several convictions involving infant homicide, including that of solicitor Sally Clark, whose convictions for killing her two babies were quashed in 2003. Clark died last year.

Malone said his client was "initially speechless" when informed of the court's decision. Later she was said to be "highly emotional" as she was reunited with her family after leaving Low Newton prison, Co Durham. "She's obviously very relieved at the outcome and understands it is the necessary first stage in the process of clearing her name," Malone said.

During the trial at Teesside crown court the prosecution accused Holdsworth of having "snapped" while minding Kyle in August 2004 and hitting his head against a banister. The jury heard that the boy died from a fatal brain swelling caused by at least one blow to the head, similar in force to being thrown from a car at 60mph.

At her appeal, Holdsworth's QC, Henry Blaxland, told Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Aikens and Judge Michael Baker QC that doctors who gave evidence at the original trial "got it wrong". He said they had collectively failed to diagnose that the child had a highly unusual brain.

Experts called on Holdsworth's behalf said that Kyle had three abnormalities of the brain, including an injury to the orbit of the right eye suffered in an accident a year before his death, that predisposed him to epilepsy.

Quashing the conviction, Toulson said the conviction "must be judged unsafe" because the court believed the fresh evidence might reasonably have affected the jury's decision to convict if it had been heard at the trial.

Detective Superintendent Gordon Lang, of Cleveland police, said:

"We will study carefully the judgment of the court of appeal in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service and work together in the event of any retrial."

Birch told the Guardian she left the force on a medical retirement after arguing detectives should question medics who had been treating the toddler for a suspected head injury before his death. She said: "I raised concerns about issues I felt should be looked at as a part of a thorough investigation."

Kyle's maternal grandmother, Linda Fisher, expressed disappointment at the decision. But his paternal grandmother, Jane Whitfield, said: "I'm so happy for Suzanne Holdsworth and for her family. I was there every day of the trial and I don't think the evidence proved she did it."

I'm so pleased for Suzanne and her family. But she still has the agony of another trial to bear.

by Cybertiger on Fri May 02, 2008 1:40 pm

I'm so pleased for Suzanne and her family. But she still has the agony of another trial to bear.

Detective Superintendent Gordon Lang, of Cleveland police, said: "We will study carefully the judgment of the court of appeal in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service and work together in the event of any retrial."

Don't be so sure, they don't want a retrial, I can't say why at the moment, however it isn't in their interests, what I can say is this, there is far more to this case than that which is in the public domain. This is not one of those cases in which we can be sure the child has never been deliberately harmed, Suzanne was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Read this article and you'll see where I am coming from.

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/39I-want-the-truth39-says.4045017.jp

This is absolutely fantastic news - I am so pleased!

Really pleased she got bail...can't imagine the feeling her partner had meeting her outside of Prison. Well, perhaps I can I've lived in in my head and my hubbie and me having a running joke...he says he's getting on a train back home just to wind me up!!! I said he'd better not move until I'm outside the Prison to bring him back, a feeling that I guess can't be described...all the best to the family.xx

From what I'd read in the Daily Mail's Website last week, Suzanne and her partner are getting married. My best wishes to them both


Nigel (ex-"Hampshirehog")

I've seen Linda Wise's acquittal of manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7525377.stm

In view of the judge's comments that "...he considered there was insufficient evidence against the defendant...", it makes one wonder why on earth the case against this lady was proceeded with in the first place.