"Victim impact statements telling of the trauma and heartache that Smith caused were read out at his disciplinary hearing Tuesday, but he didn’t show up to hear the words.
Instead, through his lawyer, Smith pleaded no contest to allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence.
Victims wept as Carolyn Silver, counsel for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, read their statements........."
HEALTH REPORTER THERESA BOYLE: THE TORONTO STAR;
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: It's too little and too late. The College should have revoked Dr. Smith's licence to practice medicine almost a decade ago. Instead it abdicated its duty to protect the public by bestowing a mere "caution" on Dr. Smith which did not have to be recorded in the College Register and permitted him to carry on his work for several more years after he was found to have bungled three cases. There are at least two saving graces. The first is that the revocation, which is recorded. will make it more difficult for Dr. Smith to be hired in a jurisdiction somewhere else in the world. Secondly, at least we won't have to call Charles Smith "Doctor" any more. He certainly doesn't deserve it. (Smith was fined $3,000 and ordered to attend personally before the College on March 25th, 2011, for a reprimand.")
Harold Levy; Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.
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Background: The inquiry focused largely on the flawed work of Dr. Smith — formerly the province's chief pediatric pathologist and a self-styled member of the prosecution team — whose "errors" led to innocent people being branded as child murderers.
The 1,000-page report by Justice Stephen Goudge slammed Dr. Smith, along with Ontario's former chief coroner and his deputy, for their roles in wrongful prosecutions and asked the province to consider compensation.
The provincial coroner's office found evidence of errors in 20 of 45 autopsies Dr. Smith did over a 10-year period starting in the early 1990s. Thirteen resulted in criminal charges.
William Mullins-Johnson, who was among those cases, spent 12 years in prison for the rape and murder of his four-year-old niece, whose death was later attributed to natural causes.
In another case, Dr. Smith concluded a mother had stabbed her seven-year-old girl to death when it turned out to have been a dog mauling.
The inquiry heard that Dr. Smith's failings included hanging on to crucial evidence, "losing" evidence which showed his opinion was wrong and may have assisted the accused person, mistating evidence, chronic tardiness, and the catastrophic misinterpretation of findings.
The cases, along with other heart-rending stories of wrongful prosecutions based in part on Smith's testimony, also raised a host of issues about the pathology system and the reliance of the courts on expert evidence."
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"The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has stripped former pathologist Charles Smith of his licence," the Toronto Star story by health reporter Theresa Boyle published earlier today begns under the heading, "Pathologist Charles Smith loses medical licence."
"Victim impact statements telling of the trauma and heartache that Smith caused were read out at his disciplinary hearing Tuesday, but he didn’t show up to hear the words," the story continues.
"Instead, through his lawyer, Smith pleaded no contest to allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence.
Victims wept as Carolyn Silver, counsel for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, read their statements.
“I was branded as a child molester and a child killer,” said the statement of William Mullins-Johnson who was wrongly convicted of sodomizing and murdering his niece. He spent 12 years in prison.
“He has virtually gotten away with the destruction of numerous lives with no consequences.”
A mother who was wrongly accused of killing her 21-month-old daughter wrote about how she cannot get work because she has been branded a child killer.
“The college cannot punish you enough for what you have done,” Brenda Waudby's statement said.
Smith, who now lives in Victoria, made mistakes in 20 death investigations in which people were criminally charged, convicted or otherwise implicated in the deaths of children.
A commission of inquiry, led by Justice Stephen Goudge, concluded more than two years ago that Smith lacked basic knowledge about forensic pathology, provided speculative and erroneous opinions in court, made false and misleading statements in court and exaggerated his expertise.
To date, five convictions have been overturned and another four appeals are still making their way through the courts.
One of these cases involves Tammy Marquardt who spent almost 14 years in jail for killing her baby boy. Court documents released Monday indicate that the Crown agrees her conviction should be quashed because it was gained based on erroneous evidence from the pathologist.
Smith had wrongly determined that her 2 1/2 –year-old son died of asphyxia through smothering or strangulation.
Dr. Pekka Sukko, a forensic expert from Finland, later reviewed the case and found Smith’s findings “illogical and completely against scientific evidence-based reasoning.”
Marquardt’s case is scheduled to be heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal on Feb. 10."
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-feature-cases-issues-and_15.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com
