Henry Blaxland QC secures retrial for Babysitter Suzanne Holdsworth

(Published on Thursday, 1 May, 2008)

Babysitter Suzanne Holdsworth, who has previously found guilty of murdering her neighbour's two-year-old son by repeatedly banging the boy's head against a wooden banister, has won an appeal against her conviction. She has been granted bail after Court of Appeal Judges declared her conviction for the murder of a toddler "unsafe" in the light of new medical evidence.

Acting for Suzanne, Henry Blaxland QC of Garden Court's Crime team argued that new evidence showed she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice over the death of the two-year old boy. The Court of Appeal was told that they child had abnormalities which predisposed him to epilepsy.

Henry Blaxland QC said that the doctors who gave evidence at trial "got it wrong" and "collectively failed to diagnose" that the Kyle had a "highly unusual brain", which indicated three abnormalities, two of which predisposed him to epilepsy."

Henry Blaxland QC also stated that the prosecution's case at trial 'was based on expert medical opinion evidence to the effect that the child died from fatal brain swelling or oedema which was caused by a blow or blows of significant force.'

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Henry Blaxland QC

Practice

Henry has specialised in criminal defence work for his entire career at the Bar. He has always concentrated on 'civil liberties' work and represented defendants in major criminal trials arising from the miners' strike of 1984/85, the protest against the Poll Tax in the early 1990s and the riot at Campsfield House immigration detention centre in 1997. His work now covers the entire gamut of criminal defence, including murder and terrorism cases.

A significant part of his practice has involved representing appellants in miscarriage of justice cases referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He now has an almost unrivalled experience of this type of work and has been centrally involved in the development of this area of the Court of Appeal's jurisprudence......Read More