Australia: Case dropped against mother accused of killing four children
Australian prosecutors dropped their case today against a mother accused of killing her four young children over a five-year period.
Two of Carol Matthey’s newborn children were found dead in their cots in 1998 and 2000.
A third infant died after collapsing outside a supermarket in 2002; the fourth child, aged three, died after falling from a table in 2003.
Coroners had previously determined that the first two children died of sudden infant death syndrome, while the third likely died of a rare blood infection.
Police began investigating the deaths in 2005 and charged Matthey with suffocating her four children.
Matthey (aged 26), was due to face trial in the Victoria state Supreme Court in Melbourne after pleading not guilty to the charge. However, prosecutors abruptly abandoned their case today after a judge ruled that much of the evidence against Matthey was inadmissible.
“I have now determined that... there is no reasonable prospect of any conviction being recorded,” Victoria state’s chief prosecutor Jeremy Rapke said in a statement.
Matthey, who has always maintained her innocence, smiled as the news was given in court, but declined to comment to media waiting outside.
