Angela and Terry Cannings: "We need to get back to some kind of normality" (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Angela and Terry Cannings: "We need to get back to some kind of normality"

Angela and Terry Cannings with daughter Jade.SALISBURY mother Angela Cannings has vowed to enjoy every minute of the rest of her life.

After 20 months in prison, wrongly convicted of murdering her two baby boys, the 40-year-old is determined to make the most of being reunited with the two people she was taken away from - her husband, Terry (50), and their "very precious" daughter, Jade (eight).

Jade is clearly thrilled at having her mummy back, relishing even such little things as being taken to school by Angela, but the family still has a great deal to catch up on.

In fact, Angela, Terry and Jade lost four years together, as Angela was forced to live apart from Terry and Jade soon after she was charged with the murder of seven-week-old Jason and four-month-old Matthew, in May 2000.

"I was told I had to live apart from Jade, otherwise she would have to go into emergency care," said Angela, from the family's home in Waters Road.

"It was stay with Terry and both lose Jade, or live elsewhere and Jade would at least have one parent. She, of course, had to come first.

"Two years we had to live apart, and all I was allowed was one weekly visit. We would have a few hours together and I would try and cram everything in, but then I would have to leave her - it was heartbreaking.

"I wasn't there at night-time, first thing in the morning or after school. I have missed out on all that and I'll never get it back."

It has been ten weeks since Angela was reunited with Terry and Jade, after three judges took just minutes to decide her convictions were unsafe and would, accordingly, be quashed.

But even now, Angela said, she still could not believe they were a proper family again, and it would take them a while to readjust.

"Terry and I have always been very close," said Angela.

"Obviously, from when we lost Gemma and Matthew, we stayed together and worked through everything, and we have always been able to talk to each other.

"Now that I am out and we are back together again, that closeness is still there - we just need to get back to some kind of normality. A lot of people think we can just be a normal family again but unless you've been through something like this, you can't understand."

Terry added: "We've had four years of not having a normal life. To have our control taken away from us ... we want to put that control back."

Terry, especially, found it difficult to cope without Angela and said at one stage he was struggling when trying to raise Jade on his own.

"After 18 months, I was going to be sectioned," he said. "Fortunately, with help from victim support and a mental health team, it was decided they would support me for the sake of Jade - so for the benefit of my little girl, I pulled myself together.

"I spent 16 months under the mental health team and my victim support lady is still with me now. The one thing I would say is that Angela and I don't take anything for granted any more - we enjoy every minute for what it is."