Sally Clark and Sir Roy Meadow

I woke up on Saturday with the usual hangover and an odd, nagging feeling at the back of my mind. I was thinking about Sally Clark, and how terrible it must have been for her to go to prison for murdering her sons, even though she was innocent. As nightmare scenarios go, I could think of little worse than losing your children, then your freedom, and then your career. To be a convicted child killer is one of the worst possible things to be in a prison.

Then I wandered into the newsagent’s and saw the newspaper headlines saying Sally Clark had died.

The cause of death will be determined by the coroner and by a post mortem, but whatever it reveals, I am inclined to believe the family when they say she "never fully recovered" from the effects of the "appalling miscarriage of justice". Prison almost certainly broke Sally Clark, and the tragedy is even her exoneration and freedom could not lessen the impact of the years spent inside for murdering her children.

Her death is tragic, and leaves a terrible taste in the mouth of any right thinking person. It is tempting to look for scapegoats – something I would normally try to avoid. But this time there is someone who is definitely to blame. The arrogant, ignorant Sir Roy Meadow. This man was supposed to be an expert witness – someone who offers the jury the truth about what happened to Sally’s Clark’s boys. But, as An Englishman’s Castle so eloquently puts it, Meadow seems to have lacked even a basic understanding of statistics. Parents have been imprisoned because of Meadow’s evidence and supposed expert testimony. You could argue that to err is human, and that Meadow is living proof. But we have to accept that we are responsible for mistakes in this life, and Meadow’s punishment (being struck off) was utterly lacking – not least because it has now been over-turned!

The people who have had to bear the responsibility and punishments for Meadow’s mistakes are those who were convicted and imprisoned because of his evidence. Meadow himself has not had to face up to the devastating impact his intellectual crassness has had. It is one of the great injustices of our time that Sally Clark should have to pay such a hefty price – ultimately perhaps even with her life – for Meadow’s blunder. Whist the person who made the mistake(s) escapes effectively without punishment.