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The Baby Killer Conspiracy

Three women were jailed for the unthinkable crime of murdering their own babies. Could the mathematical theory used to convict these women really be a conspiracy of lies used by powerful men to target defenseless grieving mothers?

The Baby Killer Conspiracy explores the stories of three mothers given life sentences in their particular cases, based in part on the use of “Meadow’s Law.” In 1999, British paediatrician Sir Roy Meadows stated that unless proven otherwise, the chances of three babies from the same mother dying of natural causes in instances of “cot death” (or SIDS) were one in 73 million.

That statistical analysis was used in the prosecution of British solicitor Sally Clark, who was accused and convicted of killing her two infant sons. While the origin of the precept has been called into question with some doctors claiming that what has come to be known as “Meadow’s Law” actually originated 10 years prior from another pair of doctors, the use of it in the Clark case led to it being presented in other cases, including that of Angela Cannings, who in 2002 was jailed for life after losing three of her four children to cot death. The conviction was overturned — as was Clark’s — when Meadow’s testimony was deemed erroneous in appeals, and the theory, discredited.

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