ROY MEADOW STRUCK OFF

July 16, 2005

Meadow struck off for misleading the Sally Clark trial
By Sam Lister, Health Correspondent

SIR ROY MEADOW, one of the country's most eminent paediatricians, was
struck off the medical register yesterday for giving erroneous and
misleading evidence which helped to convict Sally Clark of murdering
her two sons.
In a highly critical judgment, the General Medical Council ruled that
Professor Meadow, 72, had "abused his position as a doctor" in
testimony he gave at Mrs Clark's trial, the consequences of which
could not be overestimated.



However, legal and medical experts and children's charities
questioned the GMC's decision to strike off the doctor, who is no
longer practicising. They said that the ruling carried serious
repercussions for both the recruitment of expert witnesses and
paediatricians specialising in child protection.
The GMC's fitness-to-practise panel found Professor Meadow guilty of
serious professional misconduct for misleading the jury at Mrs
Clark's double murder trial in 1999, although they concluded that he
had not done so intentionally.
The paediatrician told the trial that the chances of two babies
suffering cot death within an affluent family was one in 73 million. In
his testimony and in evidence to police, he also referred to his
much-disputed "Meadow's law" on cot deaths - suggesting that
"one in a family is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is
murder".
Professor Meadow also contributed to the convictions of two other
mothers, Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, and the failed prosecution
of Trupti Patel. They, like Mrs Clark, all denied murdering their
children and were eventually vindicated. Mrs Clark was freed in 2003
after more than two years in jail and two High Court appeals. Though
judges cited errors in pathology when quashing her conviction, it is
widely held that the statistics given by Professor Meadow, then
Britain's most eminent child-abuse expert, were what persuaded the
jury.
Mary Clark-Glass, the chairwoman of the panel, told Professor Meadow
that he had failed in his duty by straying outside his area of
expertise. "Your misguided belief in the truth of your arguments,
maintained throughout the period in question, and indeed, throughout
this inquiry, is both disturbing and serious," she said.
Outlining the panel's decision to erase Professor Meadow from the
medical register, Mrs Clark-Glass added: "Your errors, compounded by
repetition over a considerable period of time, were so fundamental and
so serious it is the panel's view that a period of suspension would
be inadequate, not in the public interest and would fail to maintain
public confidence in the profession."
But legal experts said that the ruling would likely dissuade the best
doctors from offering their expert opinions in trials. Mark Solon, a
director of the legal training consultancy Bond Solon, said: "Why
would a paediatrician or any other specialist want to leave the day job
and be exposed to hostile cross-examination and potential devastating
consequences [to their career] later on?"
The mothers who were convicted with the help of Professor Meadow's
testimonies welcomed the verdict. In a statement, the Clark family said
that the ruling was the final chapter in the most painful and gruelling
of ordeals. "We are pleased that Meadow has finally been held to
account for his erroneous and misleading evidence, which we feel was
primarily responsible for the terrible miscarriage of justice suffered
by Sally," the Clarks said. Mrs Anthony, who was released from prison
in April by the Court of Appeal, said that it was not a day for
celebration. "At the end of the day, the medical world has lost a
damned, fine paediatrician," she said. "All he needed to say was
'I got it wrong'."
BANNED DOCTORS
· Dr Mark Hopwood, a GP, was struck off on July 4 for writing
prescriptions to feed his addiction to the painkiller co-proxamol.
· Dr Patrick Cosgrove, a psychiatrist and expert in attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, was struck off on July 1 for
criticising doctors and claiming a hospital inquiry was a whitewash,
failing to apologise or to turn up at a subsequent hearing.
· Professor *** van Velzen, the pathologist who stored babies'
organs at Alder Hey Hopsital, was struck off on June 19.
· Dr Alex Wells, a GP, was struck off on June 10 for providing
sedatives to a woman with psychiatric problems who used them to kill
herself.

.

Quantcast