It is good news that Simon and Michelle McWilliam have lost their appeal against their eight year sentences?

The only regret is that one or the other could not have been charged with a more serious offence that merited a longer sentence.

The NSPCC is calling today for urgent changes to the law where a child dies and more than one parent is there.

In the McWilliam case and many others, parents can escape prosecution or conviction for murder if no one can prove which one of them committed the act.

Research by Sussex Police reveals the conviction rate for strangers who murder children is 90 per cent but in cases where their parents or carers are suspected, the rate is 27 per cent.

That cannot be right and it is why The Argus launched a campaign two years ago for a change in the law.

It would not take much to end the right to silence for adults involved in these cases, tougher sentences for cruelty charges or to be able to secure joint convictions for killing where two adults are in a room and a child dies from appalling injuries.

The law is in a mess and the longer it goes on, the more instances there will be of justice not being done when young children die after suffering terrible cruelty.