Southall loses appeal

Dr David Southall, the paediatrician whose expert evidence led to the wrongful conviction of solicitor Sally Clark, has lost his appeal against a decision to strike him off the medical register for serious professional misconduct.

In 2004, Southall was found guilty of abusing his professional position by accusing Stephen Clark of murdering his children on the basis of an interview Clark gave in a television documentary. Clark’s wife, Sally, was convicted of murder but cleared on appeal in 2003. She died in 2007.

In 2007, the Fitness to Practise Panel of the General Medical Council found Southall guilty of serious professional misconduct and directed that his name be erased from the register of medical practitioners.

The panel found that Southall had “deep seated attitudinal problems” and that his misconduct was so serious that it was “fundamentally incompatible” with his continuing in medical practice.

Southall appealed, contending that the panel was wrong to make certain findings of fact that were central to the conclusion of serious professional conduct and was wrong to impose erasure, the most severe sanction available.

Delivering judgment in Southall v General Medical Council [2009] EWHC 1155 (Admin), Mr Justice Blake said: “Dr Southall’s conduct was not a mere error of judgment in a challenging environment where there may have been few established principles for guidance. “Nor was this a one-off failure with respect to the treatment of parents whose conduct had come under scrutiny.