Sally Clarke has died....

[ZZMum]

Poor poor woman... how awful for her family after all they went thru...

agree. He really should be made to answer publicly about this case, as well as all the others he has been involved in.

If he puts himself forward as an expert, he must have some credentials to support that. When he came out with the 1 in 73 million statistic which has since been shown to be a complete fabrication, was he ever asked to justify having given that in evidence?? After all, he clearly misled the court which is a serious offence.

Just as a matter of interest, does anyone know if there was any input, at any level, from the FSIDS?

Roy Meadow became famous as the inventor of the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy theory. He was knighted as a result of this for his services to child health.

"There is no body of peer-reviewed research to underpin MSBP or FII. It rests instead on the assertions of its inventor and on a handful of case histories. When challenged to produce his research papers to justify his original findings, the inventor of MSBP stated, if you please, that he had destroyed them."

Lord Howe, in a speech to parliament

There appears to be a belief that if you're an expert in one field, you must be an expert in another. So his statistical thing wasn't questioned because people assumed he understood what he was talking about (and perhaps he thought he did).

I always found it very strange that a paediatrician should be qualified to diagnose a mental illness in the first place. If MSbP really exists, and isn't actually just the result of the over-active imagination of a bunch of mysogynists, then surely a doctor who specialises in um... minds, should be diagnosing it, rather than one who specialises in children's illnesses? Or am I just hopelessly ignorant?

There must be a very fine line between pulling stats out of thin air in court and perjury. Who differentiates?

I think Meadows is very probably deluded and absolutely believes in himself as unquestionably correct in everything he has ever said. He is a megolomaniac in that sense - he cannot be wrong and therefore he is a danger to society.

That's my view anyway - it would at least explain his audacity in challenging being struck off th GMC list.

I also think he is a misogynist. He has made his dislike of women more than apparent and it seems to me the rest of the GMC is pretty much up there with him on that, hence his reinstatement.

Just read on the BBC website that they pathologists are to do further tests on poor Sally to establish the cause of death.

She has a large obituary in the Telegraph today.
The whole thing is a nightmare beyond one's wildest dreams.

Absolutely Caligula.

The sanity of a mother who has been alleged to kill her child must come in to question. How could any sane mother do such a thing?

To say a woman "hated" her own infant is just unreasonable and unfeasable. Ridiculous, in fact.

I would also like to know what happened to the *rse who chose to withhold vital evidence from Sally's defence team, namely that both her sons had extremely high readings of bacteria in their systems at the times of their deaths.

That is a very serious breach of the process and an abuse of her human rights. So what's happened to the person who took that decision??

Good point, freckle - that person had absolute uncontrovertable PROOF that she did not harm her babies, and chose to bury it. wanker.

Yes, how comes that's legal? Surely it shouldn't be? Isn't it a perversion of the course of justice? how come no-one goes to prison for these things?

Yes, following on from grouchyoscar's post - initial tests seem to show that she died of natural causes. As if that weren't ironic enough they are doing further tests...

VVV

The first question should be - was any crime commited? When a baby dies suddenly, usually it is due to natural causes. All these women, and probably many more were jailed because it the worst was assumed - that their babies' tragic deaths were the result of a criminal act.

Roy Meadow's ex-wife said he was a misogynist who had a serious problem with women. Agree with Donnie that his reinstatment probably reflects wider misogyny.

That's interesting about RM's exwife, Upwind....

Absolutely upwind.

But, if it comes to the point where charges are made and it goes to trial, the professionals shouldnt just be limited to whether or not it is likely that a family can lose more than one child to cot death. Psychological evaluation must be done, not just comments made about her "hating" her newborn.

do you mean the pathologist (alan williams) Freckle?

think he was banned from doing court work for 3 years and found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

(there was an MP who campaigned to have him and RM taken to justice - can't remember his name now )

at suggestion that people should not be jailed for killing their own child if under 1year old.(made earlier by xenia I think, not referring to this case).

Also so sick of seeing the word misogynist used all over the place on MN.It seems such an easy argument to slip into every time. RM is a wanker, probaly a chauvenist, maybe a misogynist, but then to go on about the misyogynist system and others I think is missing all the complexities of this case.

Which it goes without saying is absolutely tragic, and my heart goes out to her husband and child.

Sometimes MN feels like the 'Wimmins Room' at Uni. (or how I imagined it, I didn't frequent) too busy enjoying my mixed sex friendships, with non women hating men and non men hating women.

One of the reasons this upsets me so much is that if Sally Clark's family had not fought so hard for her she might never have been freed and those despicable "experts" might never have been discredited.

I don't remember any publicitiy when Donna Anthony or Angela Canning were convicted. How many others are there?

Judging by your post, I would guess that your picture of the 'Women's Room' at university was a long way from reality, Psycho.

Psycho - I suggested that too. Because I cannot imagine that any sane mother would want to hurt her infant child and I know someone who did as a result of severe PND. She was no criminal.

ROFL at Psycho being offended by use of the word mysogynist on mumsnet

The reason it's used a lot, is because it's out there a lot. If you're blind to it, lucky you.

Yes, "wanker" is a far better word than misogynist.