Mum set for huge payout after child death appeal win

A MOTHER jailed for smothering her infant daughter to death nearly 30 years ago could be set for a massive compensation payment after she was cleared of the killing by appeal court judges.

Jennifer Liehne was convicted of the culpable homicide of seven-month-old Jacqueline after a 2006 trial, and was sentenced to 15 years in jail by Lord Hardie, who branded it a "wicked" crime.

The sentence was later cut on appeal to seven years, but lawyers for the 47-year-old argued she had suffered a miscarriage of justice and appealed against her conviction.

Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday ruled that Ms Liehne did not get a fair trial because judge Lord Hardie failed to explain properly to the jury some of the complex medical and legal issues involved in the case.

Outside the court, Ms Liehne was only able to say that she had told everyone all along that she had not killed Jacqueline. Her solicitor, John Pryde, speaking on her behalf, said: "She is just overwhelmed and relieved that the matter is finished. She has maintained her innocence from day one and is now delighted that the matter is over, in her favour."

The allegations had destroyed her life, Mr Pryde added.

Her lawyers now have three years in which to submit a claim for compensation to Scottish ministers, who would appoint an independent assessor to determine any payment.

Ms Liehne, formerly of Craigmillar Court, had originally been charged with murdering her daughter five days before Christmas in 1982 at a house in Hyvot Avenue.

She did not challenge the guilty verdict for culpable homicide until the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, asked the appeal court to look at the case in February last year.

Ms Liehne, who now lives in Galashiels in the Borders, had been freed pending the outcome of her appeal after completing more than half her sentence in Cornton Vale prison.

In his written ruling, Lord Hamilton said: "Cases involving the deaths of infants allegedly at the hands of a parent or other carer are amongst the most difficult and potentially the most complex of all cases.

"In many such cases, and the present is such, there will be no direct evidence of criminal conduct by the accused towards the child."

The judge added that all other possible causes of death had to be excluded before a conviction could be made.

Lord Hamilton said: "It was, in our view, incumbent on the trial judge to focus the jury's attention on these explanations to allow them to approach their task in a logical and rational way and so to reach a reasoned verdict.

"Simply to leave the technical evidence at large for the jury involved, in our view, in the circumstances of this case, a misdirection."

Liehne's trial in 2006 heard how baby Jacqueline had been admitted to hospital a number of times because her mother found her "turning blue".

A post-mortem then concluded that Jacqueline had suffered a cot death.

But later investigations by medical experts found signs of bleeding in the baby's lungs.

The decision to re-open the case was prompted by social workers in 2001 when Ms Liehne became pregnant again, and two of her daughters had already been taken away and put in to care.

Yesterday, advocate depute Dorothy Bain QC said that, because of the time Ms Liehne had already served, it was not in the public interest to put her on trial again.