THERE is a look of paternal pride as Joe Wainwright cradles his newborn son in the crook of his arm. Four months after this photograph was taken, baby Joshua was dead.

Today Wainwright, 29, is in prison, convicted of manslaughter for shaking his son to death.

He claims that Joshua was violently sick and then stopped breathing. “Why would I want to shake him? He’s my baby,” he told police.

Wainwright’s case is one of more than 90 convictions for shaking a child that may be reviewed depending upon the outcome of four test cases going before the Court of Appeal this week.

Katrina Drake, Wainwright’s partner and Joshua’s mother, has received a letter from the Attorney-General’s chambers saying that his case should be reviewed. There are particular concerns because the trial was dominated by a dispute over Shaken Baby Syndrome between opposing sets of medical experts, with no other evidence of abuse or injury.

The ability of the jury at Winchester Crown Court to understand the case was called into question when a juror asked the judge to explain what a paediatrician was.

Wainwright has the support of his partner. “I know Joe, I know what a brilliant father he was and I know he didn’t do what they say he did,” Miss Drake, 29, said.

Miss Drake, a music student, and Wainwright, a window-cleaner, had been together for two years when Joshua was born. He was premature, underweight and suffered three episodes in which he became limp, stopped breathing and was taken to hospital.

The couple, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, were given equipment to monitor Joshua's breathing and taught how to resuscitate him.

On December 15, 2002, Miss Drake went to London for her sister’s 18th birthday party. She called home at around 7pm and was answered by Wainwright’s sister, who told her that Joshua had been taken to hospital.

According to Wainwright, the baby had vomited violently and stopped breathing. He had tried to revive the baby and called an ambulance.

Miss Drake caught the first train back to Salisbury — “the longest journey I've ever made” — and arrived to find Joshua in intensive care. She said that she was told that a scan had shown no serious damage, but a second scan revealed bleeding to the brain and behind the eyes, two indicators of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Miss Drake said: “The whole atmosphere changed then. The doctors started asking different questions — had Joshua banged his head? We said no and tried to tell them about the times when he had stopped breathing; but they had already made up their minds.

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