BRITAIN: Roy Meadow gave evidence in four prominent trials of mothers accused of killing their babies, resulting in three convictions, reports Jane Kirby
The Cheshire solicitor Sally Clark was jailed in 1999 for smothering her two sons, 12-week-old Christopher and eight-week-old Harry.
Following her arrest in February 1998, Ms Clark denied charges of murder, claiming she found both children limp and lifeless.
She said she found Christopher a dusty grey colour in his Moses basket as she returned from pottering around the kitchen in 1996.
Harry died in January 1998 after Ms Clark found him with his head slumped forward.
Mr Clark, who was downstairs at the time, made desperate attempts to revive his son, Chester Crown Court heard.
Prof Meadow appeared as an expert witness at the trial, telling the jury the chance of two children in an affluent family suffering cot death was "one in 73 million".
He said of the children: "Each death has the characteristic of unnatural causes which is enhanced by the fact that two deaths have occurred at about the same age in one home.
"The evidence sadly increases the strength with which I feel that the two deaths are not natural."
His claim was disputed by the Royal Statistical Society, which wrote to the Lord Chancellor saying there was "no statistical basis" for the figure.
But the Court of Appeal in 2000 said the figure would not have unduly swayed the jury and upheld Ms Clark's conviction.
It was a second appeal in 2003 that led to Ms Clark being freed. The judges heard that Dr Alan Williams, who carried out postmortem examination tests on the boys, failed to disclose evidence that could have helped her defence.
A blood test showed that Harry could have died from a killer bacteria, but the evidence was never brought before the jury.
The appeal judges also said Prof Meadow's "one in 73 million" figure was "tantamount to saying that without consideration of the rest of the evidence one could be just about sure that this was a case of murder".
They said the figure "grossly overstates the chance of two sudden deaths within the same family from unexplained but natural causes".
Angela Cannings
Wiltshire mother Angela Cannings was found guilty in 2002 of smothering her seven-week-old son Jason in 1991 and 18-week-old Matthew in 1999.
The court heard that both Jason and Matthew had suffered acute life-threatening events (ALTEs) exactly nine days before they died.
The prosecution pointed to prior hospital stays as evidence that Ms Cannings, who was always alone in the house at the time, had previously tried to kill her babies.
Her first child, Gemma, died in 1989 at the age of 13 weeks, but Ms Cannings did not face charges in relation to Gemma's death.
When she took to the witness box, Ms Cannings wept and said: "When we lost Gemma and we lost Jason, and also since we lost Matthew, each time I felt empty inside and wondered why it has all happened."
Prof Meadow told Winchester Crown Court that, after reviewing the medical notes and Jason's and Matthew's history, he believed they had both been smothered and were not cot-death victims.
He explained that Jason's low body temperature and grunting breathing patterns pointed to a smothering incident.
Ms Cannings had her conviction quashed after Court of Appeal judges ruled it unsafe in 2003.
One said the medical knowledge about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was in such a state of flux that there was "serious disagreement between distinguished and reputable experts".
In those circumstances, he said, where the outcome of the trial depended exclusively or almost exclusively on such disagreement, "it will often be unwise, and therefore unsafe, to proceed".
Trupti Patel
Pharmacist Trupti Patel was cleared in 2003 of killing her sons Amar and Jamie and daughter Mia between 1997 and 2001 in the family's Berkshire home.
None of the babies survived past three months, but Ms Patel always denied suffocating them.
Prof Meadow gave evidence in her trial at Reading Crown Court in May 2003, saying their deaths were probably caused by an adult suffocating them or restricting their breathing.
He told the court that there were four factors which he believed supported his conclusion that the three babies were asphyxiated.
These were, he said: "The fractured ribs [ in Mia], the fact that the children underwent a lot of medical investigation in life before death, the fact that there was a very short interval for two of the children between being well and dying and fourthly the fact that three consecutive children died."
Prof Meadow acknowledged there was a "theoretical possibility" that an as-yet-unidentified illness or medical condition could have caused the deaths of Ms Patel's three children.
However, he told the court he believed that was extremely unlikely.
Donna Anthony
Donna Anthony was imprisoned for life in 1998 for killing her daughter Jordan, aged 11 months, in 1996 and four-month-old son Michael in 1997.
Ms Anthony always claimed that both children were victims of cot death, not smothering as alleged by the prosecution.
The court heard she tried frantically to revive the babies, but they both died in hospital in Yeovil, Somerset.
A health worker said Ms Anthony had shown no signs of wanting to bond with or care for her children and she was accused of seeking attention. a sign of Münchausen Syndrome By Proxy.
An original appeal in June 2000 was dismissed, but Ms Anthony was freed on a second appeal in April 2005.
An Appeal Court judge said evidence given by Prof Meadow was now considered "flawed".