FOUR people convicted of killing or injuring babies by shaking them were found guilty on the basis of expert medical opinions that have been undermined by new research, the Court of Appeal was told yesterday.

In a landmark hearing which could force a radical rethink in the way that so-called shaken baby cases are treated by the courts, Michael Mansfield, QC, said that in all the cases there was no other evidence about what had happened.

Jurors were asked to infer from expert evidence that the child victim had been violently mishandled in a momentary loss of control or temper — on the basis of a hypothesis, he told the judges.

Nor was there any evidence of earlier ill-treatment. “There is no suggestion that any of these carers were child abusers,” he added.

“It is not a child abuse case. The evidence was the reverse, that they did care and were loving and supportive.”

The four were all convicted on the basis of three features involved in “shaken baby syndrome”.

But new research since 2001 had led to a reappraisal of the features; swelling of the brain, bleeding between the brain and the skull, and bleeding in the retina.

During a two-week hearing, the court is expected to hear fresh evidence from experts from both Britain and abroad that such injuries can result from the child falling from a relatively low height, that they may be linked to vaccinations or medication causing lack of oxygen to the brain, or they could be linked to a difficult birth or even have genetic causes. Up to 90 other convictions could be reviewed if the judges throw doubt on the medical evidence relied on to establish guilt in the four test cases. The outcome could also affect hundreds of family cases in which a parent, usually the father, has been denied access to a child on the basis of allegedly violent treatment.

The appeals result from a review ordered by Lord Goldsmith, QC, the Attorney-General, after the successful appeal by Angela Cannings against her convictions for murdering her two baby sons. The four appeals against conviction, being heard in London by Lord Justice Gage, Mr Justice Gross and Mr Justice McFarlane, are by Raymond Rock, Lorraine Harris, Alan Cherry, and Michael Faulder.

Rock, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, who is serving life for murdering his girlfriend’s daughter Heidi Davis, aged 13 months, in 1998, was in court. He was alleged to have shaken the child violently, but he insisted that she wriggled out of his arms and fell to the floor.

Lorraine Harris, 36, of Long Eaton, Derbyshire, was jailed for the manslaughter of her four-month-old son Patrick McGuire in 2000. She said that the baby became ill and stopped breathing after a vaccination. He had a blood disorder, which was only discovered after his death. She has been freed but is banned from seeing her other child.

Alan Cherry was convicted in 1995 of the manslaughter of his girlfriend’s 22-month-old daughter Sarah Eburne-Day. He denied shaking her in a fit of temper and claimed she fell off a stool. He is no longer in custody. Michael Faulder, 34, was jailed for 2½ years in 1999 for causing grievous bodily harm to a boy aged seven weeks. He said that he accidentally dropped the baby while trying to put him in his pushchair. The child made a full recovery. The review ordered by Lord Goldsmith involved some 300 infant death convictions, including more than 90 which raised the issue of shaken baby syndrome.The appeals are opposed by Richard Horwell, for the Crown, who told the judges that Mr Mansfield’s argument was flawed.

The case continues.

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