FRIENDS of a former Bolton woman who was cleared of suffocating three of her own babies say they never doubted she was innocent.

Trupti Patel, a qualified pharmacist, was found not guilty of murdering her two baby sons, Amar and Jamie, and baby daughter Mia, none of whom survived beyond the age of three months.

But friends say she would never have harmed them. Former school friend Ian Upton from Bolton, said: "I never once doubted that she was not guilty."

All three children collapsed suddenly at the Patels' family home in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in separate incidents between 1997 and 2001 and later died.

The jury of 10 men and one woman at Reading Crown Court acquitted the 35-year-old of the three counts of murder following a six-and-a-half week trial.

Bolton-born Patel, who with her husband, Jayant, has one surviving child, had always denied doing anything to harm her children.

She was arrested following the death of Mia, the third of her children to die, but maintained she had not smothered her babies or restricted their breathing by squeezing their chests.

Mrs Patel, whose parents came to England from the Punjab region of India in 1965, was born in Bolton in two years later, the eldest daughter of Babubhai Patel.

Her father later bought a grocery store which his wife Madhukanta helped to run and the family, together with Trupti's brother Kalpesh, lived in the flat above it. She attended the former Bolton County Grammar School, which is now Withins High School, where she excelled at chemistry.

Deputy headteacher Peter Richardson, the former form teacher of Mrs Patel said: "She was a normal pupil."

Former schoolfriend Mr Upton said: "I would have tried as hard as she did to save my daughter's life, even if it did mean breaking her ribs to get her breathing again. I have no doubt every parent would do the same under the circumstances." After leaving school, Mrs Patel gained a BSc in pharmacy at King's College, London, before training at Greenwich Hospital.

While working in Greenwich, she started dating Jayant Patel and they married several months later in 1991, first in a civil ceremony at Bolton and then in India at a traditional celebration.

They returned to Bolton to live but shortly afterwards, they moved to Maidenhead.

The first time she fell pregnant in 1994, Mrs Patel suffered a miscarriage. She became pregnant again just a few months later and her first child was born the following year.

Their second child, Amar, arrived in 1997, but when Amar collapsed suddenly and died aged just three months, the Patels' nightmare began.

Their second son, Jamie, died suddenly aged just 15 days in 1999 leaving them "devastated" and barely able to speak.

Despite everything, a year later they decided to try for a baby again.

Mia was born in 2001, but when she too died -- again without any apparent natural cause -- police suspicions were aroused.

A year-long police investigation began into the deaths, before Mrs Patel - who always denied harming her children -- was charged with three counts of murder. As the police investigation continued, the couple began to make their own inquiries. They discovered Mrs Patel's grandmother had lost five of her 12 children in unexplained circumstances and Mr Patel's father had lost three siblings.

They became convinced their children died from an inherited disorder.

When Mrs Patel was told there would a police investigation into the deaths, she hoped it would give her an answer.

But following her acquittal on the three charges of murder today, the Patels are left without an explanation and the deaths remain a mystery.

Due to the pain of the last few years and the stress of the court case, the couple have decided not to have any more children.