Even though it seemed like all the evidence pointed to him, he got away free and clear!

Architect and new father Mark Bruton-Young left court yesterday after speaking out about his “long ordeal” with post-natal depression and being accused of murdering his 6-month-old daughter Harriet in 2009, reports the Daily Mail.

After the baby was discovered dead in her crib, Mark, from the UK, made a calm 999 phone call in which his wife Clare‘s screams could be heard in the background. While he and Clare blamed it on SIDS (also called crib death,) the prosecution tried to prove that the father’s depression had driven him to smother the baby with a pillow.

Unfortunately, the autopsy did not reveal any definitive information, but the evidence presented in Bristol Crown court was pretty convincing. Police found a note in his Gloucester home that mentioned Harriet and then said “I want her out of the equation.”

Computer records showed that Mark had searched the following terms, ‘signs of deliberate suffocation’, ‘signs of cot death’, ‘father convicted of suffocation’, ‘signs of a body being moved after suffocation’ and ‘how quickly can a baby suffocate?’  It seems so obvious! He insisted, however, that he was obsessed with her safety and that was why he googling those subjects. “I would never deliberately harm Harriet.”

The prosecution argued that Mark had been longing for more time with his wife without the pressures of being a father. He had admitted on an internet forum in March of last year that he was ‘struggling with fatherhood.’

I’m sure everyone in the court room was in shock when the verdict came back — A jury of eight men and four women found him not guilty of murder. The couple walked out together and declined to comment — Can you believe his wife stood by him?

–Brooke Peoples