A woman dubbed the "Killer Nanny" has been spotted casually out shopping - 25 years after she made headlines in a child death case that shocked the world.
Wearing a winter coat over cropped gym leggings and with her Covid mask round her chin, Louise Elkes looks like an everyday mum.
But in 1997, as 18-year-old Louise Woodward, she was accused of violently shaking eight-month-old Matthew Eappen to death in one of America's most notorious child death cases.
Now aged 43, she is a dance teacher who happily chats away with fellow mums on the school run, according to the Mirror.
One neighbour said: “She’s lived here for years. Everyone knows her past but she’s just another mum to us.”
Louise had been hired by doctors Sunil and Deborah Eappen to look after their baby boy in Boston, Massachusetts.
A month later, in February 1997, she made a 911 call saying she had found the baby unresponsive and gasping for breath. He died five days later from a brain haemorrhage.
Louise, who had gone to work in the US after finishing her A-Levels at home in Cheshire, was arrested and later charged with first-degree murder.
The first Brit ever tried for murder in front of TV cameras, she was found guilty of second-degree murder and got a life term.
But 10 days later, after an appeal, her conviction was reduced to involuntary manslaughter and she was released immediately.
She returned to Cheshire and took a law degree.
In 2006 she met businessman Antony Elkes in a Chester club and they wed in 2013.
In a 2007 interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy she said: “I am innocent, I have done nothing wrong.
“I am entitled to enjoy my life, I am not going to apologise for being happy.”
She became a mum in 2014 and, having quit her legal career after two years, now teaches salsa, tango and ballroom near her home in Shropshire.
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