Baroness Campbell of Surbiton has said she has been disappointed by the portrayal of spinal muscular atrophy in media coverage of the Tania Clarence case.

Last week Clarence, 42, had all murder charges dropped against her after she killed her three disabled children. 

All three children had spinal muscular atrophy, a disease affecting the nerve cells which can be life-limiting in young children.

Baroness Campbell, who has spinal muscular atrophy, said: “There has been a lot of email, Twitter and Facebook traffic from people with SMA saying how desperately angry and upset they have been.

“What bothered me was the kind of misguided view that was being put out there about the lives of people with SMA.

“They were talking about suffering desperately, almost unbearably, and that our lives were in some way not worth living. That, I can tell you, does not feel good.

“What I worry about in terms of this particular case is that the simplification of the circumstances surrounding it is causing people with SMA a lot of damage.

“It also doesn’t help parents or children with SMA because it almost condones the fact that our [condition] is an absolute burden.

"I have no view of the actions of the woman because I don’t know her personal circumstances.

“I just wish she had got some help a lot earlier.”