Paediatrician David Southall to be investigated for withholding children’s files

The attorney general is to investigate controversial paediatrician Professor David Southall for allegedly withholding information from criminal proceedings in which he appeared as a prosecution witness.

Lord Goldsmith said he was looking into claims Southall stored files on children containing records that were not kept on their proper hospital files, and that the existence of these special case files was not revealed in the evidence he gave.

Southall is currently facing a General Medical Council hearing in which the issue is being considered.

There are believed to be 4,450 special case files going back 10 years.

Southall was banned from child protection work for three years in August 2004 after the GMC found him guilty of serious professional misconduct for accusing Sally Clark’s husband of killing their sons after watching a television documentary on the case in 2000.

Sally Clark was wrongly jailed for their murder in 1999 and released in January 2003 after the Court of Appeal quashed her conviction.

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