Angela Cannings 13/1/5FORMER Salisbury mother Angela Cannings vowed this week to fight a Home Office decision that has denied her compensation for her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of her two cot-death babies.

Mrs Cannings (41), now living in Saltash, Cornwall, said she had arranged to see the attorney general about the decision next week and would be launching an appeal against it.

She spent 18 nightmare months in jail before the evidence on her double murder conviction was discredited and she was cleared on appeal in December 2003.

During her time in prison she was verbally and physically abused and left scarred after hot coffee was hurled over her.

For two years before the trial, while she was still under suspicion, she was forced to live apart from husband Terry (50) and surviving daughter, now aged eight.

She and Terry also lost their Salisbury home because they spent so much money fighting for her freedom.

And now the Home Office has told her that her application for compensation has been turned down.

In an interview this week, Mrs Cannings spoke of her shock at the decision.

"When I was freed I was just relieved that someone had finally listened to me," she said.

"I didn't expect everything to be rosy. But I didn't expect another fight, we've been through enough."

Mrs Cannings said she believed someone should be held responsible for what happened to her and her family.

"We have lost so much in the last four years, so I believe that it is right we should be compensated. We lost our house, we lost our jobs and I was convicted of something I didn't do.

"The money would help us rebuild our lives - though it's not just about the money. It's also about acknowledging that someone went badly wrong and their mistakes devastated our lives. I just hope common sense will prevail."

The Home Office refused to comment on Mrs Cannings's case but said the decision to refuse her application for compensation was not intended to detract in any way from her acquittal.

Mrs Cannings was jailed for life in 2002 after being convicted of murdering Jason, aged seven weeks, in 1991 and Matthew (18 weeks) in 1999. She was also charged with the murder of daughter Gemma (13 weeks) in 1989 but the case was dropped.

In December 2003 the Court of Appeal ruled the convictions were unsafe and said similar cases should never again be brought to trial.

The attorney general later announced a review of nearly 300 cases in which parents had been convicted of killing children under the age of two.