A MAN found guilty at 16 of the murder of his baby brother has had his conviction quashed.

Abid Hussain, now 42, who lived at the family home in Upper Bank Street, Chickenley, Dewsbury, was sentenced to be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure in December, 1978, after being found guilty of murdering 23-month-old Mushtaq Hussain earlier that year.

His first appeal against the conviction at Leeds Crown Court was dismissed in 1980.

But his case was referred back to the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Yesterday Mr Hussain won his 26-year fight to overturn the jury's verdict when three judges ruled the conviction "unsafe".

Mr Hussain was released from prison in 1997 after successfully arguing before the European Court of Human Rights that his continued detention violated his human rights.

Baby Mushtaq was taken to Leeds General Infirmary on the evening of August 24, 1978, after falling unconscious while at home.

He was found to have two blood clots on his brain. He died the next day, after his life-support machine was switched off.

The injuries were consistent with blows to the head and body and with shaking, the Appeal Court heard.

But Tim Owen QC, for Mr Hussain, said the trial judge should not have allowed jurors to hear evidence of admissions the teenage Mr Hussain made in his police interviews and in a written statement.

"The manner in which he was detained and interviewed resulted in serious and significant breaches of the Judges' Rules and other protections which he should have enjoyed," Mr Owen added.

The breaches included Mr Hussain being detained without legal advice and he was also interviewed without an "appropriate" adult.

Describing Mr Hussain as a vulnerable 16-year-old who was held incommunicado for nine hours, Mr Owen said he was not cautioned before the first interview.

"The admissions made by him were procured by oppression or were unreliable," he added.

Lord Justice Longmore, sitting with Mr Justice Leveson and Sir Ian Kennedy, said:

"Much the most cogent evidence was Mr Hussain's own admissions obtained in breach of the Judges' Rules. They would not be regarded as admissable today."

But Lord Justice Longmore added: "Having grounds for doubting the safety of a conviction is very different from concluding that a defendant is necessarily innocent."