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 Collections under
which this article appears: Medicine
and the law (incl forensic medicine) Infants
Abuse
(child, partner, elder) |
Clare Dyer
Sally Clark, the British solicitor convicted three years ago of murdering two of her babies, was freed last week by the Court of Appeal.
Mrs Clark, who had already lost one appeal, had her case referred back to the appeal court after her defence team discovered microbiology results obtained by Alan Williams, the Home Office pathologist who carried out the postmortem examination on her second son, Harry. The findings had not been disclosed to police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, or the other doctors in the case.
She was charged with murder after Harry died aged 8 weeks in January 1998, in circumstances which were strikingly similar to those surrounding the death of her first son, Christopher, at 11 weeks in December 1996.
Christopher's death was originally diagnosed as sudden infant death syndrome. Dr Williams, and Professor Michael Green, who was brought into the case by Dr Williams, now face investigations by the General Medical Council and the Home Office after complaints lodged by Martin Bell, Mrs Clark's former MP.
Professor Green, professor emeritus of forensic pathology at Sheffield University, is not thought to have seen the test results, which showed Staphylococcus aureus from eight sites of the baby's body, including the cerebral spinal fluid.
The results, which Dr Williams had had since February 1998, were discovered by the defence team in records kept at Macclesfield hospital, where he works as an NHS consultant histopathologist.
Lord Justice Kay, who presided over the appeal, said Dr Williams had failed "to share with other doctors investigating the cause of death information that a competent pathologist ought to have appreciated needed to be assessed before any conclusion was reached." He added: "We have no doubt that the resulting convictions are, therefore, unsafe and must be quashed."
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement: "The defence called expert evidence to suggest that it is theoretically possible that the second child died from a reaction to a toxin associated with the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which was found in his body.
"This was considered by experts for the crown, one of whom gave evidence, who did not accept that this theory fitted the facts. However, the Court of Appeal held that this issue should properly have been left to the jury."
The jury was told by the eminent paediatrician Professor Roy Meadow, a crown
witness, that the chances of two cot deaths in a family like the
Clarks was 1 in 73 million. This statistic was criticised as
seriously misleading in an editorial in the BMJ (2000;
320:2-3)
The judges in the previous appeal played down its possible prejudicial effect on the jury, but Lord Justice Kay, presiding over the new appeal, said the figure was "dramatic evidence that one could confidently expect to have a dramatic impact on the jury."
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© 2003 BMJ
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  R. Wilson TV: Cot Death Mothers: The Witch Hunt BMJ, February 15, 2003; 326(7385): 402 - 402. [Full Text] |
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Collections under
which this article appears:Medicine
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Abuse
(child, partner, elder) |
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