MAN CLEARED OF KILLING 10-WEEK-OLD DAUGHTER
A father accused of murdering his 10-week-old daughter was acquitted at Winchester crown court yesterday after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence against him.Mark Latta was found not guilty of killing his daughter Charlotte, who suffered brain damage and 32 bone fractures to her arms, legs and ribs.
Mr Justice Grigson stopped the trial and ordered the jury to return the not guilty verdict but told the court it was "beyond doubt" that Charlotte had been abused by someone.
He said it was possible Mr Latta, 41, of Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire, was responsible for his daughter's injuries, but "there is absolutely no evidence".
Hampshire police said afterwards they would not reopen the investigation into the infant's death.
"That someone had abused Charlotte Latta is beyond doubt," the judge told the jury.
"Whilst Mark Latta was one of those who could have inflicted these injuries there is absolutely no evidence that he did so.
All the evidence is that he was a loving and caring father." Outside the court Mr Latta said he would not be celebrating the verdict.
"I could not have harmed my daughter in any way," he said.
"Charlotte's untimely death is a tragedy.
The second tragedy is being wrongly accused of her murder.
Today a third tragedy has been averted, the possibility of a wrongful conviction." Sharon Latta, 29, has supported her husband throughout the case.
During the four-week trial the prosecution said Mr Latta had lost his temper and violently shaken his daughter and then banged her head against a hard surface, causing brain damage, because she would not feed properly.
It claimed the fatal attack was a culmination of a series assaults by Mr Latta on his daughter, resulting in the fractures.
But the judge said there was no evidence to prove the allegations.
Earlier in the trial he ordered that Mr Latta be found not guilty of two counts of assault in relation to the fractures.
He said the prosecution had failed to prove that Mr Latta had deliberately harmed Charlotte on the day she died, or shown what instrument had caused her injuries.
The acquittal leaves open the question of who attacked Charlotte repeatedly throughout her short life.
The collapse of the trial is the latest in a series of high-profile cases in which parents have been falsely accused of killing their babies, prompting calls for a public inquiry into such prosecutions.
Several cases have been overturned on appeal or found not guilty by a jury over the past two years.
Sally Clark's 1999 conviction for killing two of her children was overturned on appeal in January 2003.
Angela Cannings, a shop worker, was also released last year after being found guilty of murdering her two sons in 2002.
Trupti Patel, a pharmacist, was acquitted of killing three of her children last year.
Campaigner Penny Mellor from the Dare to Care parents justice group called for a public inquiry into how such prosecutions are allowed to proceed, questioning the intervention of the criminal justice system in these cases.
