BMJ  2006;332:381 (18 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7538.381

News

Expert witnesses are issued with new advice after high profile failings

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Expert witnesses for the prosecution in legal cases are for the first time to be issued with a guide to their duties, after a high profile case in which experts' failings led the Court of Appeal to quash a mother's convictions for murdering her babies.

The booklet was launched this week as the attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, said that three "shaken baby" cases raised concerns about the safety of the convictions.

The three emerged from a review of 88 convictions in cases involving shaken baby syndrome in the past 10 years. The review was undertaken after an appeal court judgment in four test cases last July. The court ruled that the "triad" of injuries found in cases of non-accidental head injury—retinal haemorrhages, subdural haemorrhages, and encephalopathy—are not conclusive on their own but point strongly to shaken baby syndrome as the cause of death.

Two of the three convictions were for . . . [Full text of this article]


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