Who Killed my Baby?

Channel 4, 23 June at 9 pm

Rating:

Items reviewed are rated on a 4 star scale (4=excellent)

Towards the end of this powerful documentary, Stephanie Drake, whose son in law was convicted of the manslaughter of her grandson, said: “They're not going to take someone to court for no reason. They don't convict innocent people… really.” Her daughter, Katrina, from whom she is now estranged, sees it differently: “It's unfair… we had four weeks of medical evidence. The jury don't know anything medical. They had to ask what ‘paediatrician’ meant,” she said.

Katrina's partner, Jo, was alone with their 4 month old son, Joshua, when the baby stopped breathing. In recounting events, Who Killed my Baby? played the recording of Jo's desperate call to the emergency services and informed viewers that Joshua was found to have subdural haemorrhage, cerebral oedema, and retinal haemorrhages, characteristic of what has become known to the public as “shaken baby syndrome.”

The treating specialist, whose job title was so unfamiliar to the trial jury, explained his duty to report a baby with brain injury …