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For nearly three decades, former nanny Louise Woodward has lived a quiet life in Britain, raising her family far from the spotlight.

But she is set to be thrust back into the global headlines after HBO announced a major new drama about her life and trial, starring a critically acclaimed American actress.

Woodward, now approaching 50, was spotted shopping in Shropshire on August 1 as the 30th anniversary of the death of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen in Massachusetts approaches.

The British au pair was charged with murder aged 18 after Matthew died in 1997 from a fractured skull and a brain injury.

She was initially found guilty of second-degree murder before it was quashed. Woodward, who returned to Britain after her conviction was reduced to involuntary manslaughter, has built a quiet life with husband Antony Elkes and their daughter Holly in rural England.

But she is back in the public conscience after HBO revealed it is making a five-part series called The Trial Of Louise Woodward starring The White Lotus actress Meghann Fahy.

It is not known whether Woodward has played any role in advising HBO on the project.

The series, written and directed by Welsh screenwriter and television producer Matthew Barry, is HBO's latest high-profile drama following major studio successes including The Sopranos, Game Of Thrones and Euphoria.

Mr Barry said: 'The trial of Louise Woodward raised profound questions about childcare, working mothers, class and the role of an emerging 24/7 media. Thirty years later, those questions feel more urgent and relevant than ever.'

Louise Woodward has been pictured this month for the first time since HBO announced a major new five-part drama about her trial

Louise was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of eight-month-old baby Matthew Eappen in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1997

Louise, pictured at the moment she was found guilty of second degree murder, will be played by White Lotus star Meghann Fahy

Matthew died of brain injuries just ten weeks after Woodward started the au pair job in the US after flying into the UK

Over time doubts have continued to be raised about her manslaughter conviction. Many believe she should not have a criminal record at all.

But Matthew Eappen's family and supporters of his foundation maintain he was violently shaken and suffered blunt-force trauma while in the care of Woodward.

The series will dramatise the story of how Woodward was accused of shaking Matthew to death while he was in her care.

Woodward set her heart on a gap-year adventure after finishing her A-levels in 1996 and left her family home in Elton, Cheshire.

Within six months she had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

She had travelled to the United States to work as an au pair and was hired by Sunil and Deborah Eappen, both 30-year-old doctors, to care for their young son Matthew.

Woodward called an ambulance to the Eappens' home after Matthew stopped breathing and he was put on a life-support machine at Boston Children's Hospital. He died of a brain haemorrhage on February 9, 1997.

Woodward had been arrested on February 5 with police, prosecutors and some medical experts claiming Matthew had shown all the symptoms of shaken baby syndrome.

But her defence team argued his death was caused by an earlier head injury and Woodward has always maintained her innocence.

What followed was one of the biggest TV trials since OJ Simpson's, with millions around the world captivated as they watched on rolling news coverage.

Police charged Woodward with first-degree murder after she allegedly told officers she had shaken Matthew and thrown him on a pile of towels.

The prosecution claimed she had killed the baby in a 'frustrated, unhappy and relentless rage'.

But her lawyers strongly rejected the allegation and Woodward consistently maintained her innocence while facing criticism that she appeared 'cold' and 'remorseless'.

Under cross-examination, Woodward said she had 'popped' baby Matthew on some towels – rather than 'dropped' him.

There were claims US police had not come across the British term 'popped', meaning to gently place, confusing it with something they imagined to be more violent.

Louise is now married with a daughter

She has always protested her innocence

The mother-of-one was spotted putting on a pair of glasses to read the parking charges in a car park in Bridgenorth

She was seen almost 30 years after she was convicted of the involuntary manslaughter. The case will soon be a major TV series

Louise Woodward at the start of her trial for murder of baby Matthew Eappen

Louise insisted she had never shaken him – but may have played roughly with him briefly.

But medical experts for the prosecution argued Matthew was a victim of shaken baby syndrome, a condition in which a baby suffers brain damage after being forcefully shaken.

However, Woodward's defence team, supported by brain surgeon Joseph Madsen, argued his death could have been caused by an earlier head injury in the weeks before.

She wept and hugged her legal team as she was found guilty of second-degree murder in October 1997 and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years.

Her mother Sue Woodward said outside court: 'They've made a horrendous mistake and they need to put it right.'

It emerged two days after the verdict that jurors had been completely divided before reaching their decision.

One juror later disclosed that none of them had ever 'thought she tried to murder' Matthew.

The second-degree murder verdict sparked a wave of sympathy and anger in Britain and beyond, with supporters donating thousands of pounds to help Woodward and her parents during their ordeal.

Ten days after sentencing, Judge Hiller Zobel reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to the 278 days she had already served.

He said in his judgment: 'Viewing the evidence broadly, as I am permitted to do, I believe that the circumstances in which the Defendant acted were characterised by confusion, inexperience, frustration, immaturity, and some anger, but not malice (in the legal sense) supporting a conviction of second degree murder.

'Frustrated by her inability to quiet the crying child, she was 'a little rough with him' under circumstances where another, perhaps wiser, person would have sought to restrain the physical impulse. The roughness was sufficient to start (or re-start) a bleeding that escalated fatally.'

The US Supreme Court later upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction and reduced sentence, allowing Woodward to return to Britain.

Speaking to Martin Bashir in a special edition of BBC Panorama after her return to the UK, Woodward said she hoped to attend university and lead a normal life.

'I'd like to do what any other 20-year-old would do, I'd like to get a part-time job and just do normal things,' she said.

She described the manslaughter conviction as 'a conviction I don't deserve' and said she hoped 'in time the truth will come out'.

She went on to study law at London South Bank University, graduating with a 2.2 degree in 2002.

Two years later she began a training contract with Oldham law firm Ainley North Halliwell, describing a legal career as 'a crusade'.

However, she left the profession the following year and became a ballroom and Latin dance teacher in Chester.

At the time, it was reported she planned to release a series of instructional videos with then-boyfriend Richard Colley, a qualified dance instructor.

Woodward married truck hire company boss Antony Elkes in May 2013 after moving to Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where she continued teaching dance.

Before the birth of their daughter, now 12, she told the Daily Mail: 'I know there are some people waiting for me to have a baby so they can say nasty things.

'It upsets me but that is not going to stop me leading my life. I am innocent. I have done nothing wrong. I am entitled to enjoy my life. I am not going to apologise for being happy.'

Louise wept as she described how the baby had struggled to breathe during her trial at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Supporters of Louise Woodward marching through the village of Elton, Cheshire, as she appealed her murder conviction

After the pregnancy was announced, Matthew's aunt Mary Wong said Woodward had a 'right to have a child' but urged her to take parenting classes and learn to control her temper.

Feelings about the case continued to run high in America – and will be whipped up again by the new series.

A decade after the trial, Woodward was named 'the most notorious criminal in Massachusetts' by Boston law magazine Exhibit A.

But the case is also reported to have played a significant role in the defeat of efforts to restore capital punishment in the state.

Massachusetts lawmakers had an 80-80 tie on votes for a Bill to reinstate the death penalty in November 1997. In the end it was rejected and 30 years on the state still does not have capital punishment.

Representative John P Slattery, who sent the vote from 79-81 to the deadlock, said he switched from supporting the measure to opposing it because of the Woodward case.

He said he did not 'want to be the one lying in bed some night wondering if the wrong person is being put to death'.

Further questions over the conviction emerged in 2011 when Patrick Barnes, a paediatric radiologist at Stanford University and a key prosecution witness, said he would not give the same testimony today.

Dr Barnes said advances in MRI brain-scanning technology had transformed understanding of infant head injuries and showed that conditions including infections and strokes could produce findings once routinely attributed to shaken baby syndrome or child abuse.