Jury Decision Stands Even With Serious Doubts And Lack Of Evidence
‘Devastated’ by judgment
Jun 30 2010 By Jack Abell, Buckinghamshire Advertiser
KERAN Henderson has told of her anger and disappointment at the Court of Appeal turning down the appeal against her conviction for shaking a baby to death.
A statement from Henderson, from Iver Heath, released shortly after the court had made its decision last month, said: “Mrs Henderson and her family are absolutely devastated by the judgment but in fact not at all surprised. The whole five-year ordeal has been totally based on unproven medical opinions only. Never at any time have the events that actually happened ever been taken into account and witnesses to this day remain uninterviewed.
“The underlying issue that there was no factual proven evidence against Mrs Henderson remains.”
Since then serious doubts have been raised about the conviction and the validity of some of the expert evidence that was instrumental in the original decision.
The case has attracted the support of a number of women who have been wrongly convicted of shaking babies to death, and was even the subject of a Panaroma documentary, which looked into shaken baby syndrome.
Maeve Sheppard died in 2005 while being looked after by Henderson.
Henderson, who has now served her sentence, has always maintained the girl suffered a seizure while having her nappy changed, and that Maeve had shown signs of illness on previous occasions when she was looking after her.
Appeal judge Lord Justice Moses said: “There remains the unsolved mystery of how as admired a childminder as this appellant should have been responsible for the use of excessive force, even momentarily, when handling this baby.
“But that was a problem with which the jury had to grapple.
“There is no basis upon which this court can say that the jury was not entitled, after being properly directed by trial judge Mr Justice Keith, to conclude that the expert evidence proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant had shaken Maeve with excessive force.”
Since Henderson’s conviction in 2007, her appeal has gained huge support from residents in and around Iver Heath, who set up the Carers 4 Carers group to stand behind her.
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