The doctor whose evidence helped to free a mother wrongly convicted of murdering two of her children says a failure to accept 鈥渙bvious鈥� medical data prevented the woman from being released up to six months earlier.
Sally Clark鈥檚 conviction was overturned by the UK Court of Appeal on Wednesday. The case been called one of the UK鈥檚 greatest miscarriages of justice. Clark was sent to prison in 1999 for killing her two sons, Christopher and Harry, who died a year apart. Clark maintained they had died of sudden infant death syndrome.
But the conviction was quashed, after the 1999 ruling was declared 鈥渦nsafe鈥�. The key to the appeal was that the results of crucial medical tests had not been presented to the original hearing. The results indicate that Clark鈥檚 second child Harry had meningitis as the result of Staphylococcus aureus infection at the time of his death.
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James Morris, a witness for the defence during the appeal and an expert on S. aureus told 快猫短视频 that the new scientific evidence presented at the appeal was so obvious that even a medical student would immediately conclude Harry had meningitis.
鈥淭he prosecution should have just accepted it 鈥� that it was obvious,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o try and mount a defence was unreasonable. It means that she鈥檚 been in prison for six months longer than she needed to be.鈥�
Pathologist Alan Williams has been accused of failing to present the test results to lawyers in the original court hearing that convicted Clark. He has yet to make any statement about omission. The test results surfaced only when Clark鈥檚 husband, Stephen Clark, succeeded in obtaining his dead son鈥檚 full medical records.
Pure growth
Morris, a consultant histopathologist at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, says the tests showed that Harry had a 鈥減ure growth鈥� of S. aureus in his upper and lower airways, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and stomach.
Crucially, Harry鈥檚 cerebrospinal fluid contained a special type of white blood cell called a polymorph. These are mobilised by the body to kill bacteria by engulfing them. Morris says cells can be found floating in the CSF after death, but 鈥減olymorphs in the CSF equals acute inflammation鈥� 鈥� or meningitis.
However, experts giving evidence at the original trial who looked at tissue sections from the brain found no evidence of meningitis. 鈥淏ut they didn鈥檛 think to ask about the CSF results,鈥� says Morris. 鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 told there was a pure growth of S. aureus with polymorphs.鈥�
There was also a raised level of a specific CSF protein, low glucose levels and high lactate 鈥� which together also strongly suggest meningitis. 鈥淕iven that information you can鈥檛 sit on it and ignore it. With these results you鈥檝e got to say S. aureus was the likely cause of death,鈥� says Morris.
Post-mortem contamination
But the prosecution chose to challenge the evidence at the appeal. First they suggested that the S. aureus infection resulted from contamination of the body after death. But this would not explain the presence of polymorphs or the absence of any other infections, says Morris.
Then the prosecution argued that specific bacterial toxins had not been found. But Morris believes this is irrelevant, given that there was good evidence of staphylococcal meningitis, which can be fatal.
Morris submitted his expert鈥檚 report six month鈥檚 ago to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates miscarriages of justice in England. The CCRC accepted the weight of the new evidence.
The prosecution could have decided not to contest the appeal, in which case Clark might have been freed substantially earlier, subject to court dates. 鈥淥ne of our experts felt the theory didn鈥檛 fit the facts,鈥� a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service told 快猫短视频.
Large burden
Half of all babies carry S.aureus in their respiratory tract, but staphylococcal meningitis is thought to be rare. But Morris suspects that S.aureus is likely to be a more common cause of cot death than previously thought. Babies often carry a large burden of S.aureus at two to three months of age.
This coincides with the lowest antibody levels babies have, as the immune protection conferred by the mother wanes. And the commonest cause of death in UK babies at this age is cot death, he claims.
Chris Bacon, paediatrician and medical adviser to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, agrees that serious S.aureus infections in children are rare, but possible.
He said: 鈥淚f it gets where it shouldn鈥檛 be, it can be disastrous. If it gets into the spinal fluid it can cause meningitis, it can cause pneumonia in the lungs and septacaemia if it gets into the blood.鈥�