In case you think my conclusion to "My Story" is far fetched, here is an article I found in the Electronic Telegraph Archive dated 6th December 1994 and written by Victoria Combe.
AN ARMY wife has told how her wrongful conviction for the manslaughter of her baby 10 years ago led to her second child being taken from her into care only 20 minutes after he was born.
Mrs Janine Kirby, who was cleared by the Courts Martial Appeal Court last week of manslaughter and wilful neglect of her daughter Katie, was allowed limited access to her son, Andrew, until he was two and a half.
In a statement yesterday issued through her solicitor, Mrs Kirby, 35, said she had endured more than 11 years of "agonies" since her conviction and nine-month prison sentence.
Effects of allegations last long beyond the prison sentence
"Being sentenced was
obviously very distressing for myself and my family. But the effects of these allegations
would last long beyond the prison sentence," Mrs Kirby said.
"To help us come to terms with the loss of our daughter my husband and I had decided we should try and have another baby as soon as possible. What I had not appreciated, however, was that social services would rely upon the prosecution (and subsequently my conviction) and remove our new baby within 20 minutes of birth from my arms in the maternity hospital."
Andrew remained a ward of court in the care of foster parents from March 1984 until September 1986 when Mrs Kirby won a long legal battle to have him returned to her care. He remained on the local authority "at risk" register.
When her third child, Mark, was born in 1988, four years after the conviction, social services in Essex considered putting him on the "at risk" register and decided against it only after lengthy meetings.
Scans prove mother did not kill baby
Mrs Kirby said the Appeal Court's decision last
Friday to quash the convictions had "completely overwhelmed" her. "I cannot put into
words how I felt at that moment. I could not believe it had at last happened," she
said.
Mrs Kirby was cleared after new medical evidence showed that her baby's head had not been fractured while in her care and the injury must have occurred either in an ambulance or clinic. Dr Ian Turnbull, a consultant radio neurologist, examined scans taken of Katie's head at Dortmund British Military Hospital in Germany where she was taken by her mother and father, Geoff, an Army sergeant, and found that they did not show the fracture.
He concluded that the injury must have happened at the hospital or in the ambulance which took her to a specialist clinic. The baby was pronounced brain dead and her life support machine switched off on July 3, 1983.
Arrested by Military Police
Mrs Kirby was arrested by military police and convicted
at a court martial where she denied battering her baby.
Now living in Colchester, Essex, with her husband - who was made redundant from the Army - and sons, Mrs Kirby said: "The whole of my sons' lives and the majority of our married life has been spent in proving to others my innocence and our suitability and ability to care for our own children. "The Appeal Court decision means that no one will ever doubt this again."
www.slimeylimeyjustice.org