Post-mortem found no evidence of force, court hears.

A post-mortem on a four-month-old baby alleged to have been shaken
to death by his mother found no evidence of force being applied to
him since a “difficult birth”, a court heard today,
writes Mithran Samuel.
 
Dr Waney Squier, a consultant neuropathologist at Oxford Radcliffe
Hospitals NHS Trust, told the Court of Appeal that Patrick
McGuire’s delivery had put considerable pressure on his head
but there was no evidence he suffered any “imposed
force” after that.
 
Patrick’s mother, Lorraine Harris served a prison sentence
for his manslaughter and is one of four people challenging their
convictions in an appeal which calls into question the reliability
of so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome theory.
 
This alleges that internal head injuries can only be caused by
shaking of sufficient force. However the appellants claim such
injuries can be caused by a sharp movement of the head without
shaking.