Paediatrician and expert witness Roy Meadow has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council in London, UK, over 鈥渕isleading鈥� evidence at the 1999 murder trial of Sally Clark. Clark was convicted of smothering her two infant sons, but the ruling was quashed on appeal in 2003.
Meadow told jurors the probability that both boys died naturally from 鈥渃ot death鈥�, or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), was 1 in 73 million 鈥� a figure that many thought was pivotal in Clark鈥檚 conviction. The figure was later disputed by the Royal Statistical Society and other SIDS experts. Taking into account the influence genetics and environment, the probability of a second case of SIDS in the same family was put at about 1 in 200.
Meadow, once president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the UK, will be struck from the medical register.
Advertisement
During his hearing, which began 21 June 2005, Meadow expressed sorrow for Clark鈥檚 wrongful conviction and admitted he was 鈥渋nsensitive鈥�, but denied the charge against him. He had likened the probability of having two SIDS deaths in a family like the Clarks鈥� to four horses winning the Grand National in four consecutive years at odds of 80 to 1.
鈥淢eadow鈥檚 Law鈥�
Meadow first made headlines in 1977 after describing Munchausen鈥檚 Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) in the The Lancet. MSbP, or fabricated illness as it is now called, is characterised by parents deliberately making their children sick to get attention. He was later known for coining 鈥淢eadow鈥檚 Law鈥� stating that one cot death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder unless proven otherwise.
Colleagues have spoken out in defence of Meadow, including Alan Croft, current president of the RCPCH. 鈥淎lmost certainly he has saved many hundreds of children from subsequent harm; he has probably saved a lot of children from being killed,鈥� he told the BBC.
Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, also defended Meadow. He wrote on 2 July that Meadow was been targeted as a scapegoat and his conviction would threaten child protection services.
But Meadow is not the first to fall in connection with Clark鈥檚 case. Home Office pathologist Alan Williams was also found guilty of serious professional misconduct. Williams performed and testified on the autopsies of Clark鈥檚 two sons, Christopher, who died in 1996 at 11 weeks old and Harry, who died in 1998 at eight weeks old. Williams failed to disclose that Harry showed evidence of an infection in his cerebrospinal fluid, which could have explained his death.
Squaring odds
Meadow was called by the Crown Prosecution in Cheshire to testify at Clark鈥檚 trial in 1999. He based part of his testimony on a report authored by Peter Fleming from Bristol University in the UK, which estimated the probability of a child dying of SIDS from a non-smoking, affluent family like Clarks鈥� was 1 in 8543. Meadow reached his figure of one in 73 million by squaring the original value. But it assumes that the boys鈥� deaths were independent events, which they were not.
Robert Seabrook QC told the hearing that Meadow 鈥渆ither didn鈥檛 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鈥�.
Meadow has also previously testified in the 1998 case of Donna Anthony, who was convicted of killing her two children. She was freed on appeal in April 2005. Outside the hearing this June she said that Meadow 鈥渉as ruined my life鈥�. Meadow also testified at the trial of Angela Cannings, accused of killing her two children and Trupti Patel, accused of killing three of her infants. Both were convicted and later freed.
