Sally Clark: Drinking led to lonely death of wrongly convicted mother

Nov 8 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Cheshire solicitor Sally Clark (158)

A CHESHIRE solicitor who was freed after being wrongly convicted of killing two of her children, died accidentally after suffering acute alcohol intoxication, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Sally Clark was found guilty of murdering her sons, eight-week- old Harry and 11- week-old Christopher, following a trial at Chester Crown Court in 1999.

Mrs Clark, 42, who served more than three years in prison before being cleared by the Court of Appeal in 2003, was found dead on March 16 at home in Hatfield Peverel, Essex.

Coroner's officer John Pheby told an inquest in Chelmsford she had been found in bed, apparently not breathing, by her cleaner.

Post mortem tests showed she had a concentration of alcohol in her blood which would have made her five times the drink- drive limit – 428mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Home Office pathologist Dr David Rouse concluded that Mrs Clark, who lived in Wilmslow at the time of her arrest, had died as a result of acute alcohol intoxication after carrying out tests.

Mr Pheby told the hearing that Mrs Clark had attempted to rebuild her life after being released from prison in January 2003.

"According to her family, this was not an easy time for her and she underwent various assessments - eventually being diagnosed with a number of serious psychiatric problems," he said.

Coroner Caroline Beasley- Murray said there was no evidence that Mrs Clark intended to commit suicide.

She concluded that she had died as a result of an accident, and added: "There has clearly been a most tragic history leading up to Mrs Clark’s sad death."

Neither Mr Clark nor any other relative were at the inquest. The family was represented by lawyer Fiona Murphy.

A family spokesman said after the hearing: "All Sally’s family and friends knew her as a loving and devoted mother, wife and daughter, a view also shared by all the professionals who cared for her and her children.

"Sally was unable to come to terms with the false accusations, based on flawed medical evidence and the failures of the legal system, which debased everything she had been brought up to believe in and which she herself practised."

"The hope is that some good may come out of the tragedy of her untimely death and that a sense of balance will be restored which will not only protect infants but also their innocent parents."

The expert evidence of paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow was a focal point at Mrs Clark’s trial. He told jurors the probability of two natural, unexplained cot deaths in the family was 73 million to 1.

The figure was later disputed by the Royal Statistical Society and other medical experts, who said the odds of a second cot death in a family were around 200 to 1.

That evidence triggered an appeal and Mrs Clark’s release.

Following her death, Mrs Clark’s family said she "never fully recovered" from the effects of being wrongly convicted.