Cot deaths: Fresh doubts over parents' 'innocence'

PARENTS who harm their children could be receiving the benefit of the doubt because of confusion over what is a cot death, experts said yesterday.

Determining the cause of sudden infant deaths is highly controversial, especially where a second child in a family dies.

Researchers writing in the British Medical Journal said that uncertainty over what constitutes a sudden unexpected infant death meant some deaths may be wrongly reported as due to "natural causes". They say that, on child protection grounds, many deaths should be classified as "undetermined".

Dr Christopher Bacon and Dr Edmund Hey reviewed data from a 2005 study in the Lancet looking at second deaths in families which had already suffered one cot death.

This report concluded almost 90 per cent of second infant deaths were due to natural causes. The findings have been accepted by several medical organisations. But Dr Bacon and Dr Hey said only 43 per cent of the deaths should be described as "probably natural". A further 43 per cent they classified as "undetermined" and 13 per cent as "probably unnatural", they said.

The study comes after several women were wrongly jailed after experts suggested more than one cot death in a family was rare and murder was the more likely answer. These include the solicitor Sally Clark, who was convicted of murdering her two sons but later freed.

At her trial, Professor Roy Meadow told the jury there was a "one in 73 million" chance of two children dying from cot death in the same affluent family. He was later discredited, found guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck off the medical register. These decisions were later overturned by the High Court.

The researchers said some deaths initially classed as natural were only labelled so because of a lack of a judicial decision.

They said classifying deaths as "natural" and "unnatural" was unhelpful, which was why they labelled some deaths "undetermined". They added: "We would encourage professionals to keep an open mind assessing unexplained infant deaths and balance the need to support parents and the need to protect children."

The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths said a full investigation into sudden, unexpected infant deaths should minimise confusion between natural and unnatural deaths.