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Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 December, 2003, 15:27 GMT

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Profile: Sir Roy Meadow

The case of Angela
Cannings, whose conviction
for the murder of her two
sons has been overturned
by the Court of Appeal, has
once again put the spotlight
firmly on controversial
retired paediatrician
Professor Sir Roy Meadow.

SEE ALSO:

Sally Clark was also convicted on

evidence from Sir Roy Meadow
Sir Roy was a prosecution
witness during the original trial, but his evidence was heavily
criticised by QC Michael Mansfield during Mrs Cannings's
appeal.

Mr Mansfield argued that, were the trial to take place now, it

was unlikely the Crown would call Professor Meadow as a
witness, or, if they did, it would "have to be done with a
health warning attached to it".

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Professor Meadow was also a

central figure in two previous
similar cases.

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Solicitor Sally Clark won her

appeal in January to overturn
her conviction in 1999 for
murdering her two baby sons
and pharmacist Trupti Patel
was found not guilty in June of
murdering her three babies.

Sir Roy Meadow

Educated at a grammar school

in Wigan and Oxford University
Worked as a GP in Banbury
Became a senior lecturer at
Leeds University
Took up chair in paediatrics
and child health in 1980 at St
James's University Hospital,
Leeds
Former president of British
Paediatric Association
Former president of the Royal
College of Paediatrics and Child
Health
Knighted in 1998 for services
to child health

Giving evidence at the trial of

Mrs Clark, Sir Roy told the
jury that the chance of two
children in such an affluent family dying of cot death was
"one in 73 million".

But his claim was disputed by the Royal Statistical Society,

which wrote to the Lord Chancellor to say there was "no
statistical basis" for the figure.
And Sir Roy's estimate was criticised as "grossly misleading"
and "manifestly wrong" by a judge during Mrs Clark's second
appeal hearing.
Munchausen's
Sir Roy first came to prominence in 1977 after publishing a
paper in The Lancet medical journal on a condition he
dubbed as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

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BBC NEWS | Health | Profile: Sir Roy Meadow

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This is a form of child abuse in which a parent induces real or

apparent symptoms of a disease in a child.
Perhaps the most high profile example was the case of nurse
Beverly Allit, who murdered four children and harmed nine
others. Professor Meadow worked in this case.
But even his work in this field has been subject to
controversy.
In the House of Lords recently, Earl Howe, the Opposition
spokesman on health, accused the professor of inventing a
'theory without science' and refusing to produce any real
evidence to prove that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
actually exists.
Meadow's law
However, Sir Roy is most renowned for an observation in a
book that became universally known as "Meadow's Law".
This states that: "one sudden infant death is a tragedy, two
is suspicious and three is murder, unless proven otherwise."
He has since gained him a reputation for being particularly
severe when confronted with cases of multiple child deaths in
one family.
Many supporters, however, have championed Professor
Meadow, calling him a man of great skill and compassion.
It is also true that the Court of Appeal decision to quash Mrs
Clark's murder convictions did not hinge on Professor
Meadow's statistics.
Instead, the crucial factor was the revelation that evidence
from pathologist Dr Alan Williams had not been made
available at the original trial.
A CPS spokeswoman said Professor Meadow did not use
statistics in the Patel and Cannings trials and had been just
one of a number of expert witnesses to be called by the
prosecution.
Asked whether he would be called again as a witness, she
said: "There is no professional body that has found against
Professor Meadow that we are aware of.
"It would depend on the case and what the evidence was
whichever expert was chosen."
The General Medical Council said they were investigating
Prof Meadow but would not release any further details.

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