TEARFUL mother Anne-Marie Rooney walked free from court yesterday after being found not guilty of killing her eight-month- old baby son at a Cornish caravan park.

The 28-year-old from Gloucester buried her head in her hands and cried with relief when the jury delivered their unanimous verdict yesterday.

Her family and friends, including her husband Felix Rooney, who packed the public gallery at Truro Crown Court, openly wept when Judge Richard Field told her she was "free to go".

The jurors took seven and a half hours to reach their verdict after a harrowing three-week trial.

Mrs Rooney had pleaded not guilty to murdering baby Joe and not guilty to his manslaughter.

However the Crown withdrew the murder charge earlier this week.

The young mother, a member of the travelling community, was too emotional to talk after the verdict, but her husband Felix said: "It has taken nearly two years to bring this to court and it has been a nightmare.

"This should never have been brought to court – my wife would never raise a finger to her baby – and you know what we travellers think about our children. They are our future.

"Can you imagine what the past 22 months have been like for us?"

Another family member added: "Anne-Marie should never have been brought here. She's a good mother and would never hurt a child. She just wants to be left alone."

Judge Field told the 11 jurors – one member dropped out in the second week due to a family bereavement: "Serving on the jury is never easy. This has been a long case and a difficult one."

Turning to Mrs Rooney he added: "You are free to go."

The Rooneys and friends had travelled down to Cornwall in the summer of 2007 in search of seasonal work. They had parked up their trailers at Trevisker Farm camp site in St Merryn, near Padstow.

On the morning of July 1, baby Joe sustained fatal head, neck and brain injuries.

Rooney told the court how she had placed him in the middle of their bed, "plumped up the duvet around him" and popped outside the caravan to put something into a black plastic bin liner.

A gust of wind blew the door shut and she heard a second bang. When she went back inside her trailer she saw, with horror, her baby lying face down on the hard linoleum floor.

Mrs Rooney told police that her child had fallen head-first from their bed on to a hard linoleum floor.

Baby Joe was airlifted to Treliske Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, where he died the following day.

The Rooneys never returned to their trailer and Anne-Marie was questioned by police and subsequently charged with murder.

She always denied harming him in any way.