How has the Government responded to the issue of expert witnesses inchild care cases? You mean those cases in which some pieces of evidencehad misled the court into making an unsafe conviction? For instance,those involving Angela Cannings and Sally Clark, who were both convictedof murdering their children but subsequently released? These cases ledto a deluge of angry media coverage. Witness paediatrician Sir RoyMeadow was struck off by the British Medical Council only to win hisappeal for reinstatement a few months later.
Who'd want to be a witness? That's the fear expressed by the RoyalCollege of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the appeal court judge whoruled in favour of Meadow. Because, despite the fact that innocent womenwere wrongly convicted, some parents and carers do mistreat andsometimes kill their children.
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