Mother jailed for murder insists sons suffered cot deaths

A mother who smothered her two babies in what initially appeared to be cot deaths was jailed for life yesterday.

Angela Cannings was convicted of murdering her sons Jason in 1991 and Matthew in 1999 while they slept in her sole charge at her home near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

She closed her eyes when the verdicts were delivered at Winchester Crown Court and sobbed uncontrollably as she was led to the cells. Many of her family ran from the public gallery in tears.

Cannings, 38, denied killing her children, insisting they were natural cot deaths that could have been the result of environmental or genetic factors. But the prosecution called a series of medical experts to support their case that the boys' deaths could not be explained by any known cause of sudden infant death syndrome. Cannings had also been charged with the murder of her three-month-old daughter, Gemma, in 1989, but the charges were dropped through lack of evidence.

Sentencing her, Mrs Justice Heather Hallet said she had no choice but to impose life, but said that was a "classic kind of injustice" caused by mandatory sentencing. "It's not my decision as to when you will be released from your sentence of life imprisonment. I will make it plain that in my opinion you will be no threat to anyone else in the future," she said.

Mrs Justice Hallet said although the court heard no evidence to suggest Cannings was ill at the time of the deaths, she had "no doubt" there was something wrong with her. "You wanted these babies and you cherished them. It's no coincidence, in my view, that you committed these acts in the weeks after their births," she said.

During the six-week trial, the prosecution told the court that Jason and Matthew suffered acute life-threatening events nine days before they died. On each occasion, Cannings was alone with the babies, and on the day Matthew died, she telephoned her husband, Terry, at work rather than call an ambulance. He stood by her throughout the investigation and court case.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Trevor Symes, said after the verdicts that police still did not have any idea about Cannings' motive. He added: "There are no winners in a case such as this. Angela Cannings has been sentenced to life imprisonment, the family have lost their babies. You can't get any satisfaction from this case because it is so tragic."

Cannings' solicitor, William Bache, said she would "definitely" be appealing.

Her case follows that of the Cheshire solicitor Sally Clark, who was jailed in 1999 for murdering her two sons after the prosecution presented evidence that the chances of the two children dying of cot deaths was 73 million to one.

Police arrested Cannings after a post-mortem examination of Matthew by a paediatric pathologist could find no known cause of death. Two further paediatric experts found evidence suggesting both boys had been smothered. Det Ch Insp Symes said a criminal investigation was started after Matthew's death but not after Jason's because medical knowledge about cot deaths had advanced since then.