Disciplinary hearing charges Meadow

An eminent paediatrician gave “misleading and flawed” evidence in
the trial of a woman wrongly convicted of murdering her two babies,
a disciplinary hearing was told this week.

The General Medical Council was told that Professor Sir Roy Meadow
misused statistics and research when he gave evidence at the
trial of solicitor Sally Clark in 1999.

Meadow denies charges of serious professional misconduct.

He was also accused of being in breach of his duties when he
infamously compared the chances of two siblings dying from cot
death to the probability of picking an 80-1 winner in four
consecutive Grand National races.

Clark’s conviction was quashed on appeal in 2003 after she spent
four years in prison.

Meadow also gave evidence in the trials of three more women accused
of killing their children: Donna Anthony in 1998, Angela Cannings
in 2002 and Trupti Patel in 2003.

Cannings and Anthony were convicted but later released on appeal
while Patel was cleared by the jury at her trial.

Cannings said she wanted Meadow to be struck off. She said: “These
professionals that are taking these decisions need to realise that
they are destroying families.”

The GMC hearing is expected to last 20 days.