A babysitter sentenced to life for the murder of her neighbour’s two-year-old son was released from prison yesterday after the Court of Appeal declared her conviction unsafe and ordered a retrial.

Suzanne Holdsworth, 37, a mother of two who has spent three years behind bars, was driven away from Low Newton prison in Co Durham with a blanket over her head.

Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Aikens and Judge Michael Baker, QC, granted her conditional bail after ordering a new trial over the death of her neighbour’s son, Kyle Fisher.

At her trial at Teesside Crown Court, Ms Holdsworth was accused of repeatedly banging Kyle’s head against a wooden banister. She was said to have “snapped” while minding Kyle at her home in Hartlepool, while the child’s 19-year-old single mother was having a night out. She was jailed for life and told that she must serve at least ten years before she could apply for parole.

Ms Holdsworth has consistently denied injuring the child and claimed that he had suffered a fit as they sat watching television.

The prosecution case was that the boy died from a fatal brain swelling, or oedema, caused by a blow or blows of significant force. Jurors were told that the impact on his head was similar to being thrown from a car at 60mph.

Kyle was taken to hospital after the injury, in August 2004, and died two days later.

During her appeal, which was opposed by the Crown, Ms Holdsworth’s lawyer, Henry Blaxland, told the judges that the doctors who gave evidence at trial “got it wrong” and “collectively failed to diagnose” that the child had a “highly unusual brain”, with abnormalities that predisposed him to epilepsy.

Fresh evidence established that there was a reasonable possibility that the child suffered a prolonged epileptic seizure, he argued.

The opinion of experts called on behalf of Ms Holdsworth was that Kyle’s condition, including an injury to the orbit of the right eye suffered in an accident a year before his death, predisposed him to epilepsy.

Overturning her conviction, Lord Justice Toulson said it was the court’s view that if the fresh medical evidence had been given at her trial it might reasonably have affected the jury’s decision to convict. He said that Ms Holdsworth’s conviction “must be judged unsafe”.

“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.”

He added: “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.”

After the hearing, Ms Holdsworth’s partner of 19 years, Lee Spencer, a lorry driver, said: “She is a wonderful person and she is a wonderful mother. Children come first in her life. To say she put a child’s head into the banisters at 60mph is absolutely ridiculous.”

Ms Holdsworth’s solicitor, Campbell Malone, said: “She’s obviously very relieved at the outcome and understands it is the necessary first stage in the process of clearing her name.”

Kyle’s family said in a statement that was issued through Cleveland Police: “All we have ever wanted was to know the truth about what happened to Kyle. Since his death our lives have focused around the case. Not one of us has been able to move on. Today’s decision has brought all the heartache back. However, we will fully co-operate in the preparation for the retrial.”

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