- guardian.co.uk, Friday June 24 2005 14.12 BST
A senior paediatrician whose expert testimony led to Sally Clark being jailed for the murder of her two baby sons hugely underestimated the likelihood that they died from natural causes, a disciplinary hearing heard today.
The General Medical Council heard that the chances of two cot deaths in the same family were once every two or three years, not once every 100 years as Professor Sir Roy Meadow told Mrs Clark's trial.
Professor Sir David Cox, former professor of statistics at Imperial College, London, told the GMC fitness to practise hearing that the odds of two children from the same family dying from sudden infant death syndrome (Sids) were much higher because they shared the same genetics and were exposed to similar environmental factors.
He said Prof Meadow's testimony that the chances of Mrs Clark's two babies dying of Sids, commonly known as cot death, were "one in 73 million" should be regarded "as an error".
Prof Cox said the fact that the babies came from the same family made the calculations "suspect".
The GMC panel has already heard the true odds of two cot deaths in a family like the Clark family was just one in 77.
Mrs Clark was jailed in 1999 for killing her sons, Christopher and Harry, but cleared by the court of appeal in 2003. Prof Meadow's evidence was seen as crucial to her wrongful conviction.
Prof Meadow is charged with serious professional misconduct and if found guilty could be struck off the medical register.
The hearing continues.
