Court orders retrial of mother accused of murdering baby son

A woman, whose convictions for murdering her baby son and attempting to murder his toddler sister were quashed, is to face a retrial, the Court of Appeal has ordered.

Senior judges backed prosecution submissions that there should be fresh criminal proceedings over the double stabbing in Northern Ireland back in July 2021.

No further details about the decision can be published at this stage for legal reasons.

In June 2023 the woman was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years after a first jury trial at Belfast Crown Court.

The woman, whose identity is protected by an anonymity order, accepted having stabbed them but denied the charges.

She had been found guilty of murdering her eight-week-old son by a majority verdict and unanimously convicted of attempting to murder her then two-year-old daughter.

Both children were taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for sick children, where the girl was successfully treated but the boy later pronounced dead.

Her lawyers mounted a legal bid to overturn the convictions based on issues around the original trial process.

At a hearing last year the Court of Appeal ruled it could not be satisfied that the guilty verdicts were safe.

Despite quashing the original convictions, prosecution and defence representatives were in dispute about what should happen next.

Following further submissions the three-judge panel has now directed that there is to be a retrial.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan listed the case to be reviewed again and timetabled in May.

There was no application for bail and the woman remains in custody.