Mother cleared of drowning child

Sallie-Anne Loughran is hugged by her husband Gerald outside court

A mother accused of drowning her two-year-old son more than a decade ago has been cleared of his murder.

Sallie-Anne Loughran, 40, had denied killing toddler Thomas Hunt, who was found in a pond on a country estate in Nottinghamshire in 1991.

Ms Loughran was accused of lying about his death and laughing when confronted with her dead child's body.

A jury of seven women and five men at Nottingham Crown Court cleared her of murder and manslaughter.

No inquiry

The jury was told that Ms Loughran of Ibstock, Leicestershire, developed a deep resentment of the close relationship Thomas had quickly established with his father, Paul Hunt.

They were told she was unmoved by the death and had allegedly admitted carrying out the killing in Sutton Bonington to members of her then husband's family.

Ms Loughran, a nurse who has two daughters, said "Thank God for that" before bursting into tears as the verdict was announced.

Two-year-old Thomas Hunt died 13 years ago

Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Loughran said: "This is a case that should never, ever, ever, have happened and has meant that my son is still exhumed."

Her supporter Penny Mellor, of the Dare to Care group, said: "She has to bury Thomas now again. She has to grieve for her little boy all over again."

Peter Joyce QC, prosecuting, had earlier alleged that she had told her son's grandparents that she had carried out the killing and also attempted to joke with her husband on the night of their boy's death.

Jurors were told police launched carried out no formal inquiry at the time and that two officers conducted only a rudimentary examination of the scene.

An inquest ruled that the boy's death on 24 April 1991 had been accidental, but detectives reopened an investigation eight years later following complaints from family members.

Ms Loughran claimed that Thomas had climbed on to a chair and unlocked the back door of their home, walking around 200 yards to the pond before falling into the water.

Jurors heard that samples taken from the boy's body suggested he could not have died in dirty pond water because of the lack of sediment present in his lungs.

Defence experts disputed the conclusions and Dr Nathaniel Carey, who advised police in the Soham murder inquiry, told the court there was no evidence to suggest Thomas had not accidentally fallen into the pond.

He also rejected claims that marks discovered on the boy had been caused by Loughran holding him down in a bath tub.