Baby shaking childminder 'could be innocent'

Henderson was babysitting 11-month-old Maeve Shepherd

A Buckinghamshire childminder who was convicted of the manslaughter of an 11-month-old could be innocent, London's Court of Appeal has been told.

Keran Henderson, 43, of Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire, was found guilty in 2007 and jailed for three years.

Henderson was babysitting Maeve Sheppard in March 2005 in Slough, Berkshire, when she fell unconscious.

Consultant pathologist Professor James Morris told the court Maeve could have died from natural causes.

The prosecution case at trial was that injuries suffered by Maeve were caused by violent shaking.

Experts for the Crown Prosecution Service said injuries to the baby were caused by her neck being violently snapped back and forth.

Her QC Michael Topolski, told the court that at trial she faced a "formidable medical case via the 32 witnesses called by the prosecution".

The case needed to be formidable "not least because of the abundance of evidence as to the positive good character" of Henderson, he said.

Henderson's legal team are now calling into question the evidence given by medical experts during the trial.

Maeve Sheppard died at her parents' home in Slough

Prof Morris, one of the country's leading experts in bacterial toxins in cot death cases, told Lord Justice Moses, Mrs Justice Rafferty and Mr Justice Hedley that in his opinion "the features in Maeve Sheppard's death are consistent with, but not diagnostic of, shaken baby syndrome".

The judges heard that he also advanced the "proposition" that Maeve's cause of death "could have been due to one of the natural disease processes" which can cause an acute life-threatening event or "sudden unexplained death in infancy".

Prof Morris said that in the context of a sudden unexplained death "one cannot exclude natural, unknown disease".

Prosecutor Joanna Glynn, who is opposing the appeal, told jurors at the trial: "It is our case that Mrs Henderson violently shook Maeve and the medical evidence is that act caused Maeve's death."

Served sentence

Henderson, who had seven years' experience as a childminder and was also a Beaver Scout leader, claimed the child had a seizure while she was changing her nappy.

Henderson was in sole charge of Maeve when she was taken to hospital unconscious and critically ill with brain injuries.

A jury at Reading Crown Court convicted Henderson, a mother of two, of manslaughter by a majority of 10 to two at the end of a five-week trial.

She has since completed her sentence.

The appeal hearing is expected to last three days and has been adjourned for the day.