Woodward blames infant8217;s parents

LONDON, June 22: In her first in-depth interview since returning home from the United States after being convicted of killing a baby in her ...

LONDON, June 22: In her first in-depth interview since returning home from the United States after being convicted of killing a baby in her care, Louise Woodward implied that the parents were responsible for the death.

8220;If the parents didn8217;t do it, who did?8221; Woodward told the BBC in an interview scheduled to be aired on British Television tonight.

Prosecutors had claimed that Woodward, who returned to Britain on Thursday with a manslaughter conviction, shook 8-month-old Matthew Eappen to death. She has always maintained her innocence.

8220;There was the whole feeling that somebody had to pay and that somebody had to be me,8221; she said in the interview, according to excerpts released by the BBC.

Woodward was allowed to leave the US after a Massachusetts high court upheld a lower court judge8217;s decision last November to reduce her second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter and sentenced her to the 279 days she had already spent in prison.

A BBC spokeswoman, speaking on customary anonymity, said theinterview will cover Woodward8217;s desperate attempts to cope with Matthew on the day he went to hospital, her arrest, reaction to the trial and fight to clear her name. During the programme, the 20-year-old former au pair will talk about life with the Eappen family, her supporters back in Britain and her reaction to last week8217;s high court decision to allow her to go home, the BBC said.

The Eappen family was not immediately available for comment late yesterday.

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Woodward8217;s mother, Susan, has promised 8220;lots of answers8221; to questions surrounding the baby8217;s death in February 1997.

A photograph released by BBC of Woodward being interviewed by reporter Martin Bashir drew criticism today from the Sun and the Mirror tabloid newspapers, which saw echoes of the same reporter8217;s famous interview with Princess Diana in 1995, in which she talked of the breakdown of her marriage.

8220;Woodward seems to model herself on the princess by dressing and sitting like her,8221; the Mirror said. 8220;She has perfected thecoy, wide-eyed look Princess Diana used.8221;

Even the hotel room where the talk takes place looks similar to the setting chosen by Princess Diana, the chairs arranged in identical fashion, the newspaper said, dubbing the interview the Princess Louise8217; talk.

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8220;It8217;s downright deliberate. Why not wear a summer dress or hold the interview in a garden? Louise Woodward is taking off Diana,8221; the Mirror quoted royal expert Margaret Holder as saying. 8220;I can8217;t imagine what this interview is for unless it is to convey I8217;m as innocent as Princess Diana was8217; or I8217;m as great a lover of children as Princess Diana was,8217; the newspaper quoted her as saying. The BBC countered that any resemblance to the Diana interview was 8220;pure coincidence.8221;

8220;Don8217;t treat this killer like royalty,8221; the Mirror said in an editorial headline.