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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-04 Daily Xml
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FORENSIC PATHOLOGY REPORT

The Hon. A. BRESSINGTON (15:49): I table a two-volume report entitled 'The report of the inquiry into paediatric forensic pathology in Ontario' by Commissioner Justice Stephen Goudge. This report was released on 1 October 2008. Justice Goudge states that the failures of forensic pathology in Toronto became a nightmare for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in it. He pointed out that Dr Charles Smith became the head of Paediatric Forensic Pathology without formal training or certification, as did Dr Colin Manock in South Australia. He points out that there were serious criticisms of Dr Smith by judges in a number of legal cases. The same has occurred with Dr Manock in South Australia, as documented in Dr Robert Moles' book A State of Injustice.

Justice Goudge tells that the warning signs were ignored and that people in positions of authority who either had a duty or an opportunity to do something either turned a blind eye or else made false and misleading statements to cover up for Dr Smith's inadequacies. As detailed in Losing Their Grip—the Case of Henry Keogh, the then coroner Wayne Chivell (now Judge Chivell) stated that he decided, of his own volition, to delay publishing the findings until after the trial of Mr Keogh concluded. The findings referred to are those of the coronial inquiry into the baby deaths in South Australia which were highly critical of Dr Manock.

As part of the Ontario inquiry, Dr Robert Moles and Ms Bibi Sangha were commissioned by the inquiry to provide a research report on the baby deaths and other cases in South Australia. This has now been published in Volume 2 of the Independent Research Studies of the inquiry, which I seek to table today.

Professor Roach stated in relation to the South Australian report that the study poses the question whether there may be a connection between paediatric forensic pathology, which arguably produced false negatives in the three baby death cases, and other cases that may have produced false positives in terms of findings of non-accidental death that are open to dispute. He said that the authors also examine how a royal commission that led to improvements in other forensic sciences in South Australia had little impact on the practice of forensic pathology.

Dr Moles and Ms Sangha are now engaged on a book which will be published in Canada early next year. It is a comparative study of responses to miscarriages of justice in Canada, the UK and Australia. It compares the developments in the UK (with the Criminal Cases Review Commission) and in Canada (with eight judicial inquiries) with the denials and obfuscation in South Australia, where officials have continued to deny that there is anything amiss.

Justice Goudge explained that, in relation to Dr Smith, serious systemic failings included sloppy and inconsistent documentation, that he was indiscriminate in accepting information about cases, his conclusions were skewed by unscientific considerations, and his ultimate opinions were fundamentally wrong. However, he went on to point out that those charged with overseeing his performance cannot escape responsibility. They accepted false, misleading and deceptive statements by Dr Smith to cover up his shortcomings. The commissioner points out that, despite clear opinion that Dr Smith's conclusions were 'unsubstantiated and baseless', those in authority still continued to assert that they fell within a reasonable range.

The UK has spent some 10 years attending to miscarriages of justice by means of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, with some 240 convictions overturned as a result. Canada has spent a similar amount of time working through miscarriages of justice by means of judicial inquiries.

South Australia still continues to deny the existence of a problem despite overwhelming and compelling evidence to the contrary. It is clear that, in due course, a royal commission in South Australia will reach conclusions about the delay and prevarication on the part of officials, similar to those found by the Goudge commission. The only question will be how long it will take us to achieve that result and how many more people may yet see their reputations tarnished or demolished by their inaction.

I implore all members to read these reports in the hope that we can all play a part in delivering genuine justice for the people of South Australia.

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