Sally Clarke has died....

[ZZMum]

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

did you know SC then corkgirl?

Very many women drink heavily during pregnancies and not all of their babies die in infancy

if alcohol played a part surely the babies (all three of them) would have some form of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and learning disability?

I find it very disrespectful to Sally and her family that you chose to write the things you did on this thread.

a terrible waste. Someone should have helped that poor women but noone did. Today's Guardian, page three. Can't do links but it makes my blood boil. It also states that Roy Meadows won his appeal against being struck off the GMC.

Well he would, wouldn't he?

Guardian article

I feel we would be far better off ignoring down right stupid timewasters like CGirl and focus on the issue

Sally Clark has died. Wether she took her own life/drank herself to death/lost the will to live is irrelevant. She leaves a husband, a son and extended family mouring her loss. That should be remembered and respected

In her life time she lost 2 infant children. If the loss of 1 child is not bad enough, she is demonised as a child killer on spurious evidence. Instead of being able to grieve for the loss of her children she is inprisoned and has to fight the horrendous miscarriage of justice she is sufferring. She eventually gets some form of legal justice, is released but...despite the legal system failing so attrociously, no support it would appear.

How on earth is any woman supposed to come to terms with that? Could you?

NO!

I know I couldn't handle losing a child. Never mind the rest of the apauling story.

Please remember, she was a mother, she was a person, she was publicly wronged. She was a wife, a friend a daughter. Please, for the love of goodness, respect that.

Peace be with you Sally.

Poor woman and her poor family, they have been to hell and back and now this.
I hope she finds peace with her sons now

great post grouchy....

Isn't someone going to do something about Roy Meadows? It's outrageous that his appeal succeeded.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Roy Meadow, or the other two idiots who gave flawed evidence that helped to convict SC - Professor Michael Green and Dr. Alan Williams?

I want to be certain that they can never give evidence against anyone else again - who should I write to to express my anger for SC's tragic death??

yes, well said grouchyoscar. am so sad about all this, it is truly terrible.

Alderney...write to the GMC?

I wanted to post this earlier but at the time felt it was inappropriate however the thread has since moved on and I would now like to make another couple of points.

Roy Meadows evidence was deeply flawed, he was not an expert in the area of statistics. WHY, OH WHY does no one ever seem to question the professionalism of Sally's defence team? Surely it was their duty to find someone who actually was a statistician and who could have given true expert evidence at her original trial. Why this never happened is beyond me.

I think that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has a very good point when it says that paediatricians are very reluctant to become involved in child protection work. This is definitely happening and sadly puts children who need protection at risk. Some parents do harm or kill their children although Sally Clarke did not.

Another point I think that this tragic case raises is our treatment of those who harm children. In the recent case of the young mum from the north east who deliberately set her house on fire and was found guilty of infanticide she was freed and given treatment for her depression. I can only think that of those mothers who do kill their young babies the overwhelming majority must have mental health problems and need treatment and compassion not lengthy jail terms.

great post grouchyoscar - couldn't agree with you more.

thanks tribpot for posting the link.

This is so sad.

I would recommend the book that was written about this case (I can't remember the name of it unfortunately) as it is quite informative about what happened during the case.

Sally - rest in peace, give your 2 little boys a big hug when they greet you.

I am so sorry that this has happened to the Clarke family

I am not religious - lapsed catholic - but the phrase 'There but for the grace of God go I' springs to mind. Anyone could find themselves in this situation.

Good point about the poor defence.

It is so tragic for the family.

The information about the staph infection that killed Harry only emerged because Stephen Clark would not give up and went on and on and on scouring the medical evidence - otherwise it would probably still not be known.

Meadow's 1:73,000,000 statistical "evidence" was challenged at the time of her conviction in 1999 by the Royal Statistical Society but their evidence was ignored.

She was only 38 when this picture was taken on her release. Scroll down to the picture of her with Stephen & Christopher and you can't believe it's the same woman.

Have Alan Williams or Roy Meadow made any comment yet? (Fat chance )

Good points, LaDiDa.

A fellow mumsnetter recently lost her darling daughter and there was an outpouring of love, grief and support for her and her devastated family

When Sally Clarke lost her child, she was demonised in the press, branded a baby killer, stripped of her right to grieve, had rotten eggs thown at her prison van and appeared on the front pages with red 'demon' eyes

Such appalling treatment.

I am so proud of mumsnet but so appalled with the British press.

Rest in Peace Sally

LaDiDa - you make a really good point. I heard an item on the Today programme not so long ago about expert witnesses and the fact that their evidence is not cross-examined nearly so vigorously as it should be. For example, Roy Meadows should have been quizzed about the possibility of a genetic link - I think this example was used in the news item. This would have made the jury think twice about his evidence I think.

I have just read Sally Clark's obitary on the BBC and feel even sadder for her and her family now.
Unbelievable that meadows is not struck off for such crass arrogance with such devastating consequences.

sobernow, her face is shocking isn't it, the change in her - it's quite difficult to look at that picture of her, you are really looking at a tormented human being....poor woman.

I've just read her fathers account of the case on teh sally clarke website. It is utterly tragic.

That poor woman, her poor family. I can not comprehend how this happenned.

In her Fathers words:

"For a country that keeps a critical eye on systems of justice elsewhere in the world, the enormity of this injustice is frightening."

LadDiDah, the Royal College should be hanging its head in shame and finding out what has gone so dreadfully wrong with the profession, not trying to demonise the victims of miscarriages of justice. As they have done - when these cases became public knowledge and journalists tried to highlight the secrecy of the family courts. If paediatricians and social workers did their professional duty and stuck to the facts - and made it clear when something is outside their area of expertise - then there would be no issue over child protection work. They have dug themselves into this hole at the expense of parents and children who have been traumatised beyond belief.

For instance, what about the couple who were wrongly convicted of poisoning their adoptive son with salt? It should have been clear to any reasonable person that you can't feed a human being salt without causing vomiting. Yet the doctors who gave evidence for the prosecution promulgated this lie. What about the case where a couple were investigated and prosecuted for injuries caused in hospital ie by the very doctors who were persecuting them?

All anybody wants is for those involved in child protection to do their ruddy jobs to reasonable professional standards. If they can't do that, they should get out.

The head of social services in Westminser, recently responsible for a case with horrifying echoes of Victoria Climbie, where a child with cerebal palsy was horribly abused by her parents, has been promoted. The sws involved in the Rochdale scandal are still working, even though they are proven liars who tormented children. Senior managers involved in Victoria Cimbie's case have been promoted. Shows you exactly how the ss profession and esp. its senior managers don't give a flying fuck about professional responsibility.

The former president of the GMC told me how even he had been unable to protect a patient he had known for donkey's years from false allegations of MSbP. Once sws and one daft doctor had accused the woman of MSbP, they went off on a hysterical witch trial, ignoring all evidence and interpreting everything as supporting their case. He - the former president of the GMC, about as eminent as you can get - was threatened for daring to question their assumptions and suggesting there were more reasonable explanations for the things the sws were claiming showed guilt. That shows you how dreadfully wrong procedures are.