Goudge Inquiry: Dr. Smith's Office;

"STATE ACTORS HAVE A DUTY TO PRESERVE EVIDENCE, AS A NECESSARY ELEMENT OF THE ACCUSED'S RIGHT TO MAKE FULL ANSWER AND DEFENCE AND THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL...;

JUSTICE BRIAN TRAFFORD: KPORWODU AND VENO;"

Photographs of Dr. Charles Smith's office at the Hospital for Sick Children taken in 2001 reveal a horrific mess.

As Deputy Chief Coroner Dr. James Cairns described in his evidence yesterday, "It was the most untidy office that I've seen."

"I know that there are people who are excellent that although it looks chaotic, they know everything's in its right place and don't touch it, because they know where to find it" Cairns added. "I did not get the impression that this was organized chaos."

Dr. Cairns also noted that although all of the pathologists at the Hospital had "cubby-holes" for offices, "the other offices were not in the same state of disarray."

This was the same office where officials from the Chief Coroner's office found the long missing forensic exhibits in the Mullins-Johnson case after searching for days. (The only evidence that could show William Mullins-Johnson was Innocent);

This was the same evidence where Dr. Smith had kept the dark, curly, male pubic hair, he had held on to for years in the Waudby case - evidence that possibly would have implicated at the outset the teenage babysitter who later pleaded guilty.

This humble bloggist has seen crime scenes that were more orderly during his career as a reporter for the Toronto Star.

As reporter Tom Blackwell wrote yesterday in the National Post, the photos, introduced into evidence yesterday,reveal Smith's office at the Hospital for Sick Children as, "a room over-flowing with files, loose papers and tissue-sample slides."

"Somewhere in that desk top jumble a key piece of evidence gathered by the pathologist went missing for four years."

This evidence is important for what it reveals about Dr. Smith: an apparent indifference to the pathologist's supremely important duty to properly document, preserve and protect evidence for use in Court;

But it also raises serious questions about the Hospital for Sick Children, the Chief Coroner's office and the Ontario Government.

Smith's Superior's and colleagues - who were well aware of the importance of his work for the Chief Coroner's office - must have been in that office countless times during the more than the many years he was on the Hospital Staff.

How could they not have been aware that Dr. Smith's scattered working conditions could impact negatively on his important work and require him to cleanup his act?

Dr. Cairns testified that he had been at the Pediatric Forensic Pathology Unit at the Hospital many times.

Why wouldn't he have realized there was a serious problem here and taken serious steps to clean it up - especially after reports began mounting that Dr. Smith was failing to produce reports in a timely fashion, was losing key forensic evidence, and that he had stopped returning phone calls from police officers, prosecutors and coroners?

Dr. Cairns testified that the Hospital viewed the matter as a problem of resources and was seeking more money from the government to improve the situation.

Since Dr. Smith was a staff member of the Pathology Department why didn't his superiors at the Hospital take administrative action to rein in Dr. Smith?

And what about the Ontario government which was paying the Hospital to house the Pediatric Forensic Pathology Unit according to a written agreement?

Why wasn't the government - presumably the Solicitor General - sending in its own inspectors to ensure that the unit was adhering to the highest standards of protecting evidence for use in court?

My take is that neither the Hospital, the Coroner's office, or the government felt the need to exercise some control over Dr. Smith until it was too late - and the havoc Dr. Smith was creating time and time again began spilling out into the public record.

Dr. Smith's irresponsibility was staring them all in the face - yet they stood back and let him carry on.

The public deserved so much more - from all of them.