GMC hears case against paediatrician in Sally Clark trial
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《英国医生杂志》
The retired consultant paediatrician Roy Meadow gave "misleading and flawed" evidence in the trial of Sally Clark, a mother accused of murdering her two baby sons, the General Medical Council heard this week.
Robert Seabrook QC, for the GMC, said Professor Meadow had breached his duties as a medical expert witness and "misused" statistics and research in his evidence to the jury at the 1999 trial of Mrs Clark, a solicitor, whose conviction was overturned on her second appeal in 2003. Professor Meadow, 72, denies serious professional misconduct.
Mr Seabrook QC told a GMC panel in central London that no one wished to deny Professor Meadow's achievements over the course of a long career. The 20 day hearing would be concerned solely with the misuse of statistics and research.
The paediatrician Roy Meadow arrives at the GMC hearing in London
Credit: REUTERS/EDDIE KEOGH
Professor Meadow "either didn't understand what he was doing, should not have given evidence and was incompetent to do so, or he was using the information carelessly in support of the proposition that Sally Clark smothered her babies," said Mr Seabrook. The result was the prosecution of "a woman of good character for the murder of her two babies."
Mrs Clark's first son, Christopher, died at the age of two and a half months in September 1996. After a postmortem examination his death was attributed to a lower respiratory tract infection. In 1998 her second son, Harry, died aged two months. The pathologist who carried out autopsies on both babies put the second baby's death down to shaken baby syndrome. The pathologist contacted the police, and Mrs Clark was later charged with murdering both babies.
Mr Seabrook said it was the GMC's case that Professor Meadow's evidence during the committal proceedings and subsequent trial was misleading and flawed. The panel heard that Professor Meadow told the initial hearing at Chester Magistrates' Court that the odds against two cot deaths in a family were one in a million."
Later, in evidence to the jury, he said the risk of two infants dying of sudden infant death syndrome in a home like Mrs Clark's was one in 73 million. He explained that the probability of a single death from sudden infant death syndrome in a non-smoking household where the mother was aged over 26 and with at least one wage earner was one in 8543, and he squared this figure to produce one in 73 million.
He added that the chance of two genuine deaths from the syndrome in one family arose "once in every hundred years" and that the odds could be compared to that of four different horses winning the Grand National in consecutive years at odds of 80 to one.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)
Robert Seabrook QC, for the GMC, said Professor Meadow had breached his duties as a medical expert witness and "misused" statistics and research in his evidence to the jury at the 1999 trial of Mrs Clark, a solicitor, whose conviction was overturned on her second appeal in 2003. Professor Meadow, 72, denies serious professional misconduct.
Mr Seabrook QC told a GMC panel in central London that no one wished to deny Professor Meadow's achievements over the course of a long career. The 20 day hearing would be concerned solely with the misuse of statistics and research.
The paediatrician Roy Meadow arrives at the GMC hearing in London
Credit: REUTERS/EDDIE KEOGH
Professor Meadow "either didn't understand what he was doing, should not have given evidence and was incompetent to do so, or he was using the information carelessly in support of the proposition that Sally Clark smothered her babies," said Mr Seabrook. The result was the prosecution of "a woman of good character for the murder of her two babies."
Mrs Clark's first son, Christopher, died at the age of two and a half months in September 1996. After a postmortem examination his death was attributed to a lower respiratory tract infection. In 1998 her second son, Harry, died aged two months. The pathologist who carried out autopsies on both babies put the second baby's death down to shaken baby syndrome. The pathologist contacted the police, and Mrs Clark was later charged with murdering both babies.
Mr Seabrook said it was the GMC's case that Professor Meadow's evidence during the committal proceedings and subsequent trial was misleading and flawed. The panel heard that Professor Meadow told the initial hearing at Chester Magistrates' Court that the odds against two cot deaths in a family were one in a million."
Later, in evidence to the jury, he said the risk of two infants dying of sudden infant death syndrome in a home like Mrs Clark's was one in 73 million. He explained that the probability of a single death from sudden infant death syndrome in a non-smoking household where the mother was aged over 26 and with at least one wage earner was one in 8543, and he squared this figure to produce one in 73 million.
He added that the chance of two genuine deaths from the syndrome in one family arose "once in every hundred years" and that the odds could be compared to that of four different horses winning the Grand National in consecutive years at odds of 80 to one.(Clare Dyer, legal correspondent)