"Whether or not Mr Starmer now changes his mind, Dr Patel is likely to be expected to play the traditional role of scapegoat, and the General Medical Council is already gearing up to investigate his conduct in the Tomlinson affair.
But if anyone should be investigated it ought to be the General Medical Council itself which was culpably slow to discipline Dr Patel for previous errors, thus allowing him to continue to practise as a pathologist........."
RICHARD INGRAMS; THE INDEPENDENT;
REMINDER: EXECUTION BY FIRE; GLOBAL TV; Friday, May 13, 10PM (9PM Manitoba/Sask.)
(In 1991 three little girls died in a fire that gutted their home in a small Texas town. Sympathy turned to rage when their father was charged with murder by arson. After a thirteen-year battle to prove his innocence and despite new evidence casting doubt over the conviction, Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in 2004. Since Willingham’s death, leading fire scientists have challenged the underpinnings of the case, concluding it was an accidental fire. Today, Willingham’s family is still battling to clear his name and for the first time Texas may be forced to admit to executing an innocent man. Another documentary by renowned Canadian journalist Julian Sher. “What can be more crushing than the nightmare of losing your child,” asks Sher. “And then the nightmare gets unimaginably worse when the police accuse you of the murder and you know you’re innocent? These were compelling human dramas and trials that grabbed the headlines. We tried to look at the toll these cases took not only on the accused but also on their families—their loved ones, the other children. It’s also about how communities turn against the guilty suspect in our midst – how we are all guilty of jumping to conclusions.”)
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Charles Smith saga - called by the Globe and Mail a series of earthquakes which exploded under Ontario's criminal justice system - has underlined the enormous harm that can be caused by an incompetent pathologist who is used to investigate criminal cases by the State. One of its lessons is that medical licensing bodies such as the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ontario and the British Medical Council must scrutinize allegations made against such pathologists extremely carefully and hold them strictly to account where misconduct is found - that's what protecting the public is all about.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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"Now that a jury has decreed that the news vendor Ian Tomlinson was "unlawfully killed" during the G20 demonstration of 2009, attention has turned once again to the pathologist Dr Freddy Patel who originally declared that Tomlinson had died as the result of a heart attack," Richard Ingram's column published in the Independent on May 7, 2011 begins, under the heading, "Tomlinson decree brings more question."
"It was Dr Patel's decision and the fact that he had disposed of blood samples that earlier led the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, to rule out a prosecution of the police officer responsible for pushing Tomlinson to the ground," the column continues.
"Whether or not Mr Starmer now changes his mind, Dr Patel is likely to be expected to play the traditional role of scapegoat, and the General Medical Council is already gearing up to investigate his conduct in the Tomlinson affair.
But if anyone should be investigated it ought to be the General Medical Council itself which was culpably slow to discipline Dr Patel for previous errors, thus allowing him to continue to practise as a pathologist. Then there is the original coroner, Dr Paul Matthews, who appointed Dr Patel to carry out the post-mortem on Tomlinson, apparently quite unaware of his appalling record which included the failure to spot a murder victim, and equally unaware that among his fellow pathologists his name was mud."
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The column can be found at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/richard-ingrams/richard-ingrams-dont-bow-to-those-who-get-a-kick-out-of-ghoulish-images-2280374.html
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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://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
