The news media has been full of stories on the conviction of Louise Woodward, the British au pair accused of killing 8 month old Matthew Eappen. There is an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy, not for Matthew's parents, but for the convicted killer. Just what is going on here?

In researching this piece, I read nearly 30 articles, and not one of them raised the one big obvious question. Matthew died of massive head trauma, and he was in Louise's care at the time. If she didn't do it, how did it occur? Indeed, amazingly enough, no alternative explanation of the injuries, credible or otherwise, was offered by the defense. They just...happened.

The best that defense attorney Barry Scheck (he of the O. J. Simpson trial fame) could come up with is a re-interpretation of autopsy photos, which "proved" that the skull fracture that led to the baby's death occurred prior to February 4, 1997--the day he was rushed to the hospital. Therefore, Louise didn't do anything to him that day. What Miss Woodward could have done to Matthew on any other date was not disclosed.

Scheck complained that he was not able to present this "powerful" evidence to the jury. Sorry, Barry, but not every jury is quite as idiotic as the one you faced in LA--the one that believed that the defendant didn't match his own DNA. I guess you're losing your touch.

But again, why the huge sympathy for Louise Woodward? Matthew's mother, Deborah, touched on it in a CNN interview. "The idea that someone who looks normal or friendly or young or...I hate to use stereotypes...a young white soft-spoken British accent, intelligent girl--could harm your child, it's terrifying to people."

That's right. White middle class America and Britain can't stomach the fact that a white middle class girl could murder a child. The only alternative is denial. And, what is denial other than the dissociation of cause and effect?

Good Lord, they reason, if SHE could do it, then I could do it!

My message to those in denial: You already do! You participate in and accept abortion and euthanasia, never talking directly about them. Instead, you talk about rights and choice, quality of life, and other circumlocutions.

The evidence be damned. Louise can't possibly be guilty. White middle class girls just don't do those kind of things.

Sad to say, they surely do. And, when the only perceptible reaction is denial, more's the pity.