Meadow gave “flawed” evidence, hearing told

An eminent paediatrician gave “misleading and
flawed” evidence in the trial of a woman wrongly convicted of
murdering her two babies, a disciplinary hearing heard today,
writes Chloe Stothart.

The General Medical Council heard 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.

It is alleged that the paper Meadow relied on at Clark’s
trial contained “erroneous evidence of the transfers of two
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) deaths in a family”.

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 obtaining heads or tails when tossing a
coin, or 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. “These
professionals that are taking these decisions need to realise that
they are destroying families.”

The GMC hearing is expected to last for 20 days.