A Huddersfield mum has spoken of her anguish as a new inquiry focuses on shaken baby cases.
Joanne Senior has taken part in a TV documentary which examines the injuries when babies are shaken and the fallout from conflicting scientific evidence.
Back in 2009, she launched a petition for a new law aimed at protecting children.
The mum-of-three called on the Government to bring in legislation that would allow people to find out if their partner had any convictions for offences against children.
She has also done an enormous amount of work for the NSPCC and their Coping With Crying campaign. She said: “If we can just make someone stop and think for a second.
“It won’t harm a baby to be left crying for a few minutes but a few seconds can be all it takes to cause a life-time of damage.”
Joanne, 40. of Golcar, started campaigning after son Charlie, now nine, was left blind and brain damaged by his father, Paul Sykes.
He had shaken baby Charlie very severely causing traumatic injuires.
Now a BBC investigation by the Panorama team which goes out tonight looks at the concerns of parents who face jail or losing their children, if courts find them guilty of harming their babies by shaking them.
One doctor who regularly appears as an expert witness for the defence is now herself on trial accused by the General Medical Council of giving unreliable evidence in shaken baby cases.
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The BBC team met Joanne and other families affected by such violence and others continuing to protest their innocence.
Charlie was left blind and with restricted movement after the incident with Sykes and is likely to need care for the rest of his life.
Now a leading doctor who was an expert witness for parents accused of killing their children has been found to have misled courts.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) ruled that Dr Waney Squier had given irresponsible evidence outside her area of expertise.
Dr Squier, 67, based at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, disputed the existence of “shaken baby syndrome”.
She said she was “devastated” and stands by her evidence.
The panel found she misrepresented research to support her views and had brought the reputation of her profession into disrepute.
