Au Pair's Parents Acquitted Of Fraud

Parents of English nanny Louise Woodward were cleared of charges of trying to defraud their daughter's defense fund, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

Judge John Roberts decided the money was the Woodwards' to use.

They had been charged with presenting a false invoice to the fund, for accomodation at the home of their American lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp, during the trial for the killing of baby Matthew Eappen.

Sharp said they stayed for free.

But the judge said the Woodwards had a right to that money all along, however they went about getting it.

The judge said the prosecution failed to prove that certain sums of money within the fund were not donated solely for the parents' use.

The Woodwards, both 44 and now estranged, were charged with defrauding the fund of more than $13,500.

Louise Woodward, now 22, was convicted in Massachusetts in 1997 of murdering 8-month-old Matthew Eappen, a Newton, Mass., baby in her care. The Massachusetts judge later downgraded the conviction to manslaughter, and she was freed after serving 279 days in jail.

The former au pair had accompanied her parents to the trial, which began last week, and was listed as a possible defense witness.

The trial had been expected to last three weeks.