A childminder has been jailed for shaking an 11-month-old baby to death. Keran Henderson had been trusted to look after little Maeve Sheppard but killed her instead, Reading Crown Court heard. Maeve Sheppard was initially looked after by her mother. Like many new mothers Ruth Sheppard was torn between her desire to look after her baby girl and the financial pressure to return to work. Mrs Sheppard told the court how she spent every waking moment with her daughter while on maternity leave. She wiped away tears as she remembered a happy, trouble-free baby. She and her husband Mark, who were childhood sweethearts before being reunited in adulthood, had struggled to make ends meet with the wages from Mr Sheppard's job as a toolmaker. Continued here
Friday 29 February 2008
Minder Killed Baby By Shaking Her Court Told
A childminder killed a baby girl in her care by shaking her violently, a court heard yesterday.
Keran Henderson, 42, is said to have shaken Maeve Sheppard so violently that she was blinded and suffered terminal brain damage. She died in hospital two days later. Henderson, who was looking after the 11-month-old and other children at her home in Iver Heath, Bucks, told ambulance staff that Maeve had suffered a sudden fit as she changed her nappy advertisement
But the jury at Reading Crown Court was told that there was no medical evidence to support this claim. Henderson, a registered childminder, was employed by Ruth Sheppard, 36, and her toolmaker husband Mark, 38, to mind their only child, following a recommendation from a local playgroup. She was described as "very good with children" and was used by a number of parents.
Keran Henderson, 42, is said to have shaken Maeve Sheppard so violently that she was blinded and suffered terminal brain damage. She died in hospital two days later. Henderson, who was looking after the 11-month-old and other children at her home in Iver Heath, Bucks, told ambulance staff that Maeve had suffered a sudden fit as she changed her nappy advertisement
But the jury at Reading Crown Court was told that there was no medical evidence to support this claim. Henderson, a registered childminder, was employed by Ruth Sheppard, 36, and her toolmaker husband Mark, 38, to mind their only child, following a recommendation from a local playgroup. She was described as "very good with children" and was used by a number of parents.
On the morning of March 2, 2005, Henderson dialled 999, telling the operator that Maeve had suffered a seizure, was limp and had sunken eyes. A hospital examination found that the child was suffering from bilateral retinal haemorrhaging — bleeding behind both eyes. It was concluded that this was caused by either shaking or a shaking impact.
There was no evidence of external injury to cause the condition, said Joanna Glynn, for the prosecution. Maeve's parents were told there was no hope of a recovery and they had her christened in hospital hours before they agreed to her life support machine being switched off.
"The cause of death was given as head and neck injuries and it is the prosecution's case that these injuries were non-accidental," said Miss Glynn.
"It is our case that Mrs Henderson violently shook Maeve and the medical evidence is that that act caused Maeve's death."
Maeve had been unwell in the weeks before her death, but this did not explain the injury to her brain. She was said to have been "whizzing around" in her walker only hours before she was taken to hospital. Continued here.
Yahoo Chat Outcome
"12 EXPERTS told how she was shook violently causing her neck to 'overextend' but Keran still proclaims she is innocent and needs to be freed, she compares herself to the miscarraige of justice that has applied to four mothers who lost their child to COT deaths, yes this was a tragedy but how can a child who had so many traumatic injuries have died if she had not shaken her. Is three years really a long enough sentence for this little girls life???
Continue the discussion here
Justice4Maeve
"how did an 11 month old have a brain injury, snapped her neck, have retinal damage and brain swelling in the space of 5 hours in someones care if nothing but a fit happened" As quoted from http://justice4maeve.blogspot.com/
Childminder Keran Henderson jailed for shaking baby to death in a fit of temper
"Medical experts told the court that the child’s fatal brain injuries could only have been caused by a shaking so violent that it caused her neck to snap back and forth"
Source - The Times
Source - The Times
"A childminder was jailed for three years yesterday for shaking an 11-month-old baby to death. Keran Henderson, 42, collapsed in the dock as a jury at Reading Crown Court convicted her of killing Maeve Sheppard in a fit of temper. The infant was taken to hospital critically ill in March 2005, but her life-support machine was switched off two days later, after a bedside christening" Continued here
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