London: Trupti Patel, the Indian mother, absolved of the charges of killing her three children has now been cleared of the fourth charge of attempting to murder her eldest child by the Reading Crown Court.

Patel, who has been exiled from the family home for more than a year and is allowed to see her daughter only under supervision, now hopes that she will be allowed to return to live at home with her husband and eight-year-old daughter.

Only a High Court judge can decide whether she may return home and be trusted to be alone with the child.

The Windsor and Maidenhead's social services department raised her hopes by expressing its desire for a speedy and positive outcome. A council source said the care proceedings were likely to return to the High Court's Family Division in weeks, rather than months.

Patel, a qualified pharmacist, was on Wednesday found not guilty of murdering her two baby sons - Amar and Jamie -and baby daughter Mia, none of whom survived beyond three months.

All three had collapsed suddenly at the family home in Maiden head, Berkshire, in separate incidents between 1997 and 2001 and later died.

Patel, who with her husband Jayant, a business analyst, has one surviving child, had always denied doing anything to harm her children.

She was arrested following the death of Mia, the third of her children to die, but maintained she had not smothered her babies or restricted their breathing by squeezing their chests.

PTI