Discovery has commissioned London-based prodco Caravan to produce a two-part docuseries examining the stories of three women who, in separate cases, were accused of killing more than one of their .
On the 24
th October 2003, Kathleen Folbigg was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder and manslaughter of her 4 young children. Branded as ‘Australia’s worst female serial killer’, she has spent 18 years incarcerated. The prosecution’s theory was that Folbigg had smothered all 4 children, despite the lack of any medical evidence to assert this. The case was made that the likelihood of all 4 children dying of natural causes was so statistically improbable as to render it impossible. Unfortunately, this used a line of logic known as ‘Meadow’s Law’, which has cost the freedoms of several innocent women, and is also part of a wider story about the misuse of statistics and the misuse of science generally in the courtroom.
A Salisbury solicitor who was instrumental in securing justice for a mum wrongly convicted of killing her babies has died of Covid aged 77. William Bache, known as Bill, was famous for his work helping parents falsely accused of abusing or mistreating their children. His best-known case is that of Angela Cannings – the Salisbury mum who, in 2002, was sentenced to life in prison for smothering her two sons. In actual fact, the death of Mrs Cannings’ babies was down to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) but the opinions of a controversial paediatrician, who was later struck off, convinced the jury of her guilt.
William Bache, solicitor noted for his staunch defence of parents accused of murdering their children – obituary
Bache gave the appearance of being a formal member of the Establishment, but beneath the surface lurked the beating heart of a rebel
Bache: ‘Che Guevara in a pinstripe suit’
Credit: Geoff Pugh
William Bache, who has died aged 77, was a solicitor whose practice ranged from conveyancing to courts martial in war-torn Iraq, but he became best known as a tireless defender of parents who found themselves accused of murder after their children had suffered sudden, unexpected deaths.
The first and most influential of his cot death cases involved Angela Cannings, a mother from Salisbury who had lost three babies between 1989 and 1999. She was arrested on suspicion of smothering all three children while they slept, and convicted in 2002 of murdering two of them.