GIST: "The girlfriend of a man accused of severely assaulting her and maiming their baby testified Wednesday she falsely implicated him to avoid being charged with murder. A weepy Christina Hammond testified she feared being another victim of disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith, so she gave an incriminating statement to police against Malcolm Ricketts, her lover and father of their child, Heaven Hammond-Ricketts, in March 2010. “I thought I could be going to jail for murder for a baby shaking case. Charles Smith sent away a list of innocent families and I felt we were going to be held responsible,” Hammond told Madam Justice Bonnie Croll in the judge-alone trial. A provincial inquiry found problems with 20 cases that Smith — the former chief pediatric pathologist — had worked on, with 13 of them leading to wrongful convictions. Heaven was 3 1/2 months old when she was rushed to hospital on March 6, 2010 with internal bleeding in her brain, two broken legs and 10 healing rib fractures. She now has cerebral palsy and is permanently developmentally delayed. She cannot walk, talk or see properly, court heard. The prosecution is alleging that Heaven was alone with her father when she suffered injuries consistent with a violent shaking."
The entire story can be found at:http://www.torontosun.com/2012/07/11/mom-blames-disgraced-doctor-for-lying-about-maiming-child
Toronto Star story: Reporter Peter Small;
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/1224639--child-abuse-trial-mom-denies-boyfriend-injured-their-baby-girl
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.
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 found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
