Paediatrician faces misconduct hearing

Paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow has been accused of providing “misleading and flawed” evidence in the trial of a woman accused of killing her two sons.

Sir Roy, whose cot death theory led to the wrongful conviction of several mothers for murdering their children, is facing a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing.

The GMC is considering evidence Sir Roy provided in the 1999 trial of solicitor Mrs Clark, who was accused of murdering her two sons, Christopher and Harry.

Sir Roy had stated that the probability of two natural, unexplained cot deaths occurring in the Clark family was 73 million to one – a claim which was later disputed by the Royal Statistical Society, which argued that there was no statistical basis for the claim.

Mrs Clark served three years, before she was eventually freed in 2003 after the Court of Appeal overturned her convictions. However, Mrs Clark was not freed as a result of Sir Roy’s testimony, but because it later emerged that another witness, pathologist Alan Williams, had failed to disclose important medical evidence.

At the hearing today, Roy Seabrook QC, representing the GMC, said: “He 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.”

Sir Roy also gave evidence in the trials of Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony, who were also found guilty of murdering their children.

They also had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal, after serving prison terms.

Sir Roy, who is facing charges of professional misconduct, could face being struck off the medical register if he is found guilty.

Sir Roy became famous for coining the term Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy – which describes a condition where a parent fabricates, or actually creates in some cases, symptoms of illness in their child – in a 1977 paper for the medical journal, The Lancet.

He became renowned for his statement on infant deaths – “One sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder, unless proven otherwise”.

Angela Cannings, who served 18 months after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of her two sons, and Donna Anthony, who was freed after serving six years for the murder of her son and daughter, were both present to see Sir Roy enter the hearing today.

Mrs Cannings reportedly shouted: “Any apologies for the families, Professor Meadow, for the families you destroyed? Apologies, that’s what we want.”

(KMcA/SP)