AFTERMATH OF GOUDGE REPORT: MURDER CHARGE WITHDRAWN IN CASE OF MOTHER WHO'S THREE-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER DIED AFTER A HEAD INJURY AND SEIZURE; CITYNEWS;

Echos of the The Goudge Report resonated in a Toronto courtroom yesterday when a second-degree murder charge was withdrawn against the deceased baby's mother;

The court proceeding was reported earlier today by CityNews in a story that ran under the headline, "Mom Of Dead Baby Walks Free After Charges Against Her Withdrawn In Court."

"When Anna Sokotnyuk walked out of a Toronto courtroom on Thursday morning, she inhaled her first real breath of truly fresh air in over three years," the story begins.

"That's because a cloud of suspicion that had been hanging over her since 2005 was finally swept away," it continues.

"Her troubles began when her 3-month-old daughter, Anastasia, suffered some kind of head injury and went into a seizure. The panicked mom called 911 but by the time paramedics arrived, the little girl was without vital signs. She died in hospital six days later and authorities accused the distraught woman of killing her.

But after the Goudge Report into cases handled by forensic expert Dr. Charles Smith brought flaws in the system into focus, a panel was asked to look into other instances where the evidence might be questionable. Experts examining the child's death decided they simply couldn't tell why the baby died.

And now Sokotnyuk can claim a small degree of vindication - she's the first person to have charges withdrawn after the review and is no longer facing accusations of second-degree murder.

The 27-year-old expresses a mixture of both grief and relief knowing the terrible accusations are now gone. "[It's been] four years of nightmare," she sighs. "It's over but I feel like I need some rest."

Her lawyer claims her life has turned into a nightmare. "She's gone through horror for the last three years," concurs Robert Nuttall. "To lose a 3-month-old child and then to be charged with its death ... is unimaginably horrific. And at the end of the day, the system worked."

Sokotnyuk may be the first to get off the hook for a crime she insists she never committed, but she almost certainly won't be the last. The Crown Attorney's office is currently reviewing 142 cases of parents who were convicted of their children's deaths because of the controversy surrounding shaken baby syndrome."

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;