Cleared mother helped by Angela Cannings
A tearful mother cleared today of killing her young son made regular phone calls throughout her three-week trial to another woman who faced false accusations of infanticide.
Sallie-Anne Loughran, 40, held emotive conversations with Angela Cannings, also 40, who had a life sentence for the murder of her two sons quashed by the Court of Appeal in December.
Mrs Loughran's friend and campaigner Penny Mellor, who has protested against allegations that the woman suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, said: "She has been distraught, and me and Angela have been in regular contact with Sallie.
"Throughout this entire trial, all she can think of is that her son is still exhumed and that his organs are missing.
"That is why she could not take the stand, because she just couldn't cope with it. He has been exhumed for two years and that is disgusting.
"When they exhumed him, they found the organs were missing. That is all she has been able to concentrate on. She doesn't understand, as his mother, why this has happened."
Ms Mellor said that Mrs Loughran had drawn comfort from her correspondence with shop assistant Mrs Cannings, but was given a stark picture of the life in prison which awaits a woman convicted of killing her child.
"She feels guilty and she feels she needs punishing for a tragic accident," Ms Mellor said.
"Just as Angela (Cannings) felt guilty, just as Sally (Clark) felt guilty - it is the same for any mother that loses a child.
"Any parent that loses a child, whether it is through sudden infant death or a tragic accident, always feels that in some way they are responsible.
"Sallie-Anne has been distraught over a number of things, and the fact that she has had to listen to her character being assassinated.
"She has been petrified, absolutely petrified, and she has had good reason to be petrified, because to go into prison as a child killer means your life is made a living hell.
"I have seen what happens to them, they get attacked continuously. She knows that because we have prepared her for that, but I swear to God that mother didn't kill that child. She didn't kill Thomas."
