MASSACHUSETTS, November 12: On her first day of freedom after her conviction was reduced to manslaughter, British au pair Louise Woodward said on Tuesday she loved eight-month-old Matthew Eappen.

``I loved Matthew,'' Woodward said in a statement issued by her lawyers. ``I know that his family is unable to understand or believe me, because they are so convinced that I killed him or at least contributed to his death.''

``I pray that further investigation into the scientific evidence convinces the Eappen family that I did their son no harm,'' she added.

Woodward, 19, said she was ``enormously relieved'' by Judge Hiller Zobel's decision to reduce her conviction from second-degree murder.

That ruling is being challenged by the prosecution for being too lenient, while the defense maintains that Woodward is innocent.

``My relief at being freed does not reduce my desire to obtain total vindication in a case where, as I have said under oath, I committed no crime,'' Woodward said in the statement. ``I did not harm, much less kill, Matthew Eappen.''

Woodward has been ordered to surrender her passport and remain in Massachusetts pending what could be a lengthy appeal.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.