Sunday, December 2, 2007

Goudge Inquiry: Jenna's Case: Why Didn't Dr. Smith Practice What He Preached?

Dr. Charles Randal Smith clearly knew how to conduct a forensic sexual assault examination.

In fact he was the expert.

He was the pathologist the Toronto Police Service invited to assist on a day long seminar entitled "Parents Who Kill," which was presented by the Homicide Squad at a downtown Toronto hotel, on June 12, 1995.

This is the same Dr. Charles Randal Smith who was found by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to have conducted an inadequate sexual assault investigation.

More particularly, he had failed to conduct a standard rape kit swab to determine if Baby Jenna had been sexually molested.

He had also kept in his personal possession - and failed to hand over to the police or submit for forensic examination - a tiny, curly, dark male pubic hair found in the area of two and a half year-old Jenna's vulva.

((See previous blogs: Another shocking revelation: Former chief coroner sent letter drafted by Smith's lawyers to College; Smith said he kept key exhibit at his home, former chief coroner says);

Dr. Smith certainly did not practice what he preached.

Here is what he taught the police officers about the the importance of taking swabs.

"Sperm motility: Collect suspicious material from the vaginal vault or the posterior fornix using a cotton swab or glass dropper. Place on slide, cover slip, and examine at high dry power for motile sperm."

Here is what he taught the police about the the importance of seizing foreign hairs found in a young girl's sexual organs;

"Foreign hairs must be carefully sought, and some scalp hairs should be taken from the victim for comparison."

All of which makes me wonder what reason Dr. Smith could possibly have had for failing to perform the routine tests he had taught others to perform in order to detect whether there has been a sexual assault - and for hiding the suspicious hair he had found on Jenna from the authorities.

He certainly couldn't plead ignorance.

Harold Levy; hlevy15@gmail.com;