6:22pm UK, Sunday September 21, 2008
A doctor who accused the husband of solicitor Sally Clark of murdering their two children has won his bid to be allowed to return to work.
Dr David Southall can return to work as a paediatrician
Dr David Southall claimed it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that Steve Clark killed his sons after he watched an interview featuring Mr Clark eight years ago.
The paediatrician was subsequently found guilty of serious professional misconduct and was banned four years ago from engaging in child protection work.
But a General Medical Council panel in Manchester has lifted the ban.
I would like to thank my paediatric colleagues, especially those who came to give evidence on my behalf.
Dr David Southall
Andrew Reid, chairman of the GMC’s Fitness to Practise panel, said Dr Southall had expressed regret and remorse for his actions and demonstrated “considerable insight” into his failings.
Speaking after the hearing, Dr Southall said: “I would like to say how pleased I am by the General Medical Council’s decision today.
“I would like to thank my paediatric colleagues, especially those who came to give evidence on my behalf.”
Dr Southall told the panel last month he still thought he was correct in raising the alarm over Mr Clark, but admitted the language he used in the accusation was “injudicious”.
The 60-year-old believed Mr Clark attempted to suffocate his eldest son, Christopher, in a London hotel room in 1996 following his description in the Channel 4’s Dispatches interview about how the child suffered a nose bleed and breathing difficulties.
The late Sally Clark with husband Steve
He said he owed an apology to the late Mrs Clark for his assumption that if her husband had smothered Christopher he must also have killed their second son, Harry, who died 13 months later.
But he maintained his concerns about the events in the hotel room remained and the incident “has not been explained by the passage of time”.
Mrs Clark, 42, was convicted in 1999 of double murder but cleared by the Court of Appeal four years later.
She died of natural causes at her home in Chelmsford, Essex, last March.
Christopher died nine days after the hotel room incident in December 1996 aged 11 weeks in the sole charge of Mrs Clark.
The couple’s second son, Harry, died at home in January 1998 aged eight weeks.
Mr Clark said he did not want to comment on the ruling
YOU CALL THIS HEALTH CARE?! 
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