Britain: Another arrogant and ignorant forensic "scientist"

Nine murder convictions, including the case of Michael Stone, are being examined by miscarriage of justice investigators after the resignation of a Home Office pathologist. Michael Heath resigned in September after he was criticised by a Home Office disciplinary panel. The Criminal Cases Review Commission has now started to re-examine cases about which there was concern.

Dr Heath was the pathologist who carried out the postmortem examinations on Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter, Megan, who were bludgeoned to death with a hammer in Chillenden, Kent, in 1996. Stone was convicted of the murders. The pathologist has also been involved in other big cases, including Stuart Lubbock, who was found dead in Michael Barrymore’s pool.

The commission said yesterday that four cases, including the Stone conviction, had been referred to officials by defence lawyers after a number of trials involving the pathologist had been challenged. The commission has examined another 54 cases involving Dr Heath and decided that there was potential concern about five. If it believes that there are doubts about the convictions, the cases will be sent to the Court of Appeal.

David Jessel, the commissioner who looked at the convictions, said that in many cases a pathologist was “marginal” to the conviction. But in cases where issues such as the time of death or the nature of the fatal injury were contentious, his evidence could be decisive. Mr Jessel said: “I think I have identified some cases where that sort of issue is at the heart of the application and where, if there is a doubt about the pathologist, that sort of case should be looked at again.”

Dr Heath was a Home Office pathologist for more than 14 years before he resigned. A spokesman for Lord Goldsmith, QC, the Attorney-General, said he had concluded that a review of all other cases in which Dr Heath was involved was not required. “The Attorney-General believes that the normal appeal procedures and, where appropriate, the involvement of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, should be sufficient,” he said.

In August a Home Office advisory board found that Dr Heath’s performance had fallen short of the standards required in the cases of two women in which he refused to back down on his view that they had been murdered. Steven Puaca was jailed in 2002 for killing Jacqueline Tindsley, 55, but his conviction was quashed last year. Mr Puaca was convicted of murder on the basis of Dr Heath’s evidence. Three other pathologists believe that Miss Tindsley died from an epileptic seizure.

Kenneth Fraser was cleared of murdering his girlfriend, Mary Anne Moore, 56. Dr Heath concluded that she had been hit over the head. Four other pathologists said that she had died in a fall downstairs.

Report here




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