What killed Sally Clark’s child?

16 May 2007

Neville Hodgkinson asks why the jury in the Sally Clark trial was told to discount the DTP jab given to her second child, Harry, just five hours before he was found dead

Not many people know these facts, because at Sally’s trial the defence did not mention immunisation as a possible cause of death. Two prosecution witnesses, including the paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow, assured the jury it could be discounted. Their statements went unchallenged, and the issue did not form any part of the appeal hearings. Professor Meadow, a former member of a Department of Health sub-committee on adverse reactions to vaccines, told the jury that he could not think of any natural explanation for Harry’s or Christopher’s deaths.

Yet the DTP vaccine they both received can unquestionably cause alarming and occasionally life-threatening reactions in susceptible babies. The pertussis (whooping cough) component, made from whole cells of the microbe, has been especially implicated as a cause of permanent brain damage and death. The evidence was spelled out in an unpublished 150-page report to the Department of Health by Dr Gordon Stewart, emeritus professor of public health at the University of Glasgow and a world authority on vaccine safety.

Professor Stewart’s report, first submitted at the request of the chief scientist in 1983 and updated in 1998 and 2006, also shows that, unlike the other vaccines, pertussis is ineffective — there has been widespread recurrence of whooping cough in fully vaccinated children in Europe and the USA. For these reasons several countries, including West Germany, Italy and Japan, removed it from their infant vaccination schedule. The report calls on the UK to do the same.

Harry Clark died in 1998, when the DTP vaccine also contained a controversial preservative, thiomersal, comprising 50 per cent mercury. Its use in childhood vaccines has recently been phased out in the UK, following concerns that it may have contributed to a rise in developmental disorders, especially autism. Last year the whole-cell pertussis vaccine was also finally abandoned in the UK, years after most other countries, in favour of a safer version.

Sally Clark, a solicitor, was freed after a huge campaign by friends, family and other supporters who recognised a gross miscarriage of justice. Her story was told by John Batt, also a solicitor and a family friend, in his book Stolen Innocence, described by the British Medical Journal as ‘a terrible indictment of the criminal system, the legal profession and our own experts’. The book highlighted seemingly arbitrary, shifting and conflicting ‘expert’ opinions. Where some saw signs of abuse, others were emphatic that these were probably misinterpretations of natural events, including damage at birth and post mortem. Mrs Clark had a serious drink problem, which worsened after Christopher’s death; but there was no evidence of her being anything other than a caring mother towards her children.

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carol jewell

March 16th, 2009 8:43am Report this comment

Sally and her family deserve justice for her and her family. To cover up the fact the little baby had had a combination of chemicals pumped into it's body should have those involved in administering this lethal cocktail in the High Court. There is a link between the condition of the little baby and the administering of the injections. The baby was said to have been sniffeling before the injections were given. This was a sign all was not well and to then inject the baby with these chemicals was an appalling act of medical irresponsibility. The all too freely of flooding synthetic chemicals into the body just has to be vigorously opposed. In the case of babies who are showing signs and symptoms ( as Sally's little boy did ) of a weakness in the pituitary gland, the chemicals would have a further devastating effect on this gland and major organ failure would result. The most common cause of the symtoms the baby was showing would be the presence of the viruses Measles; Mumps; Chicken-pox; Rubella in the central nervous system..

Jack Humphries

July 31st, 2009 7:34pm Report this comment

It is probable that the person who vaccinated the child killed the child, complicit with the person who instructed that the child be vaccinated, and the parent/s of the child who consented for the child to be vaccinated.