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Tuesday 2 December 2008

What killed Sally Clark’s child?

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

The main reason for her eventual release was the discovery of a microbiology report, not disclosed to the defence, showing that Harry had a common bacterial infection when he died. Again, experts disagreed about the significance of this report, but at a second appeal the judges ruled it made the convictions unsafe.

This vindication, such as it was, came too late. On 16 March this year Sally Clark was found dead at the family home in Essex. She was 42. An inquest heard that she appeared to have died from natural causes. The results of more detailed tests are awaited, but friends suggested she died of a broken heart. She had spoken of how her eventual acquittal did not end her ordeal; of how she did not feel she had ever really proved her innocence.

Could that be because the most likely cause of Harry’s death — an adverse reaction to the vaccines — was neither put to the jury nor formed a part of public discussion surrounding the case?

An examination of related legal and other correspondence has now made clear the reason for this extraordinary omission. It is that child health experts, following public loss of confidence in vaccination when the risks of brain damage were first publicised, were trying to maintain a united front in preventing further debate. Even paediatricians who gave testimony on Mrs Clark’s behalf told defence lawyers that if vaccination were mentioned as a possible cause of Harry’s death, they would dispute it. Not wanting to confuse the jury, and with judges having a history of bowing to dominant medical opinion, the defence decided to stay silent on the issue.

With hindsight, it is clear that this was a bad decision. Not just for Sally Clark, her husband, her surviving child, her family and friends, but because of the suppression of evidence of potentially vital importance to public health. Deaths and major injuries from vaccines are rare, but if professionals take an ostrich-like attitude towards those that do occur — and instead blame the parents — the scene could be set for a major disaster.

More articles from: Neville Hodgkinson | this section

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