... encouraged by the maxim known as Meadow's Law, that 'one cot death is a tragedy, two cot deaths is suspicious and, until the contrary is proved, three cot deaths is murder.' This dictum was coined by Professor Roy Meadow, a prominent British paediatrician who has served as an expert witness in many cases of multiple sudden infant deaths. Suspicion was drawn to Sally Clark by the occurrence of two deaths; it was regarded as such an unlikely event that the burden of proof had reversed and the normal presumption of innocence until proved guilty was turned on its head. The death of Clark's first baby was originally attributed to natural causes- there was evidence of a respiratory infection, but after the death of her second child the pathologist changed this to death by smothering. Quite simply, the prosecution held that multiple deaths are beyond coincidence and the second death became ...

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