Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Wednesday 11 June 2003

Trupti Patel cleared of triple child murder

Mrs Trupti Patel, a 35-year old pharmacist from Reading (Berkshire), was today cleared by a jury at her trial for the alleged murder of three of her children between 1997 and 2001. The jury took less than two hours to reach their verdict.

It seems that this disturbing case raises questions which further research may help to answer. Microbiologist Dr David Drucker and colleagues at Manchester University have discovered a faulty gene which means the immune system of some babies doesn't work well enough to fight everyday illnesses. "The baby will respond less well to infection," he said.

It will be recalled that in the recent Sally Clark case (see the earlier article in my main website), in which the mother was accused of murdering two of her children, the jury acquiited Mrs Clark after the prosecution evidence was found to be grotesquely flawed.

Undoubtedly there are cases where mothers do kill their children, but these two cases illustrate vividly how much there is still to learn about the causes of infant deaths.

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