Expert witnesses are issued with new advice after high profile failings

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7538.381

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Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

Expert witnesses for the prosecution in legal cases are for the first time to be issued with a guide to their duties, after a high profile case in which experts' failings led the Court of Appeal to quash a mother's convictions for murdering her babies.

The booklet was launched this week as the attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, said that three “shaken baby” cases raised concerns about the safety of the convictions.

The three emerged from a review of 88 convictions in cases involving shaken baby syndrome in the past 10 years. The review was undertaken after an appeal court judgment in four test cases last July. The court ruled that …