A FATAL Accident Inquiry is to be held into the circumstances surrounding the death of toddler Declan Hainey.

The 15-month-old's mummified body was found in a rubbish-filled cot at a flat in Bruce Road, Paisley, in March 2010 and his drug addict mother, Kimberley, was jailed last year for a minimum of 15 years after being convicted of murder.

But she has now been freed after the Court Of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday overturned her conviction for attempting to defeat the ends of justice in relation to the death – just a day after the court quashed her murder conviction.

Ms Hainey, 38, sobbed as the judges ordered her freedom.

The Crown Office later said it would not seek a retrial, but a spokesman added: "In January 2012 Crown Counsel instructed a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the tragic circumstances surrounding the death should be held at the conclusion of criminal proceedings.

"The Procurator Fiscal will now apply to the Sheriff Court to hold an FAI."

Following Declan's death, a Significant Case Review was commissioned and an independent report into the tragedy made 16 recommendations for improvements at Renfrewshire Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The council and NHS say action has been taken to implement all of them.

The report was commissioned by Tim Huntingford, independent chairman of the Renfrewshire Child Protection Committee (RCPC), soon after Declan's body was discovered in 2010 and completed that year.

However, it could not be made public at the time because of the police investigation into the case and the subsequent trial of Ms Hainey.

Mr Huntingford now says: "We will co-operate fully with the FAI."

No date has been set for the inquiry.

After the appeal judges announced their decision to free ms Hainey, their reasons for quashing her murder conviction were revealed.

The original trial heard the post-mortem of Declan proved inconclusive and that the cause of death was "unascertained".

But the evidence of two expert witnesses maintained that the boy had suffered malnutrition and maltreatment before death. However, it emerged neither have medical qualifications.

They are forensic anthropologists whose expertise, Ms Hainey's lawyers argued, could be applied to determining a possible age of the child when he died but not his condition prior to death.

The appeal judges found the jury was misdirected by the trial judge, who did not tell them to ignore any of the evidence given by the forensic scientists.

As a result, the appeal court quashed the murder conviction.

ewan.fergus@ eveningtimes.co.uk