The paediatrician David Southall, who is facing charges of serious professional misconduct at the General Medical Council, last week denied that he had accused a mother of murdering her 10 year old son.
Professor Southall is accused of abusing his position and adding to the distress of a bereaved patient during a 1998 interview with the child's mother, referred to as Mrs M. Her son, named only as M1, was found hanged in his bedroom in 1996. A police investigation led to no charges, and an inquest returned an open verdict.
Testifying by video link from Australia, Mrs M told the hearing last month that Professor Southall had been “very aggressive and sarcastic.”
Professor Southall told the GMC's fitness to practise panel that he had been concerned by the “violent” death of someone so young. He said he saw three possibilities: an accident sustained while the boy played at hanging, a suicide, or murder.
He added that he was concerned about gaps in the police investigation and the inquest, notably the lack of a toxicology report, despite a needle mark on the boy's arm.
But the GMC counsel Richard Tyson said to Professor Southall: “I suggest to you that you leapt to the third possibility in this matter and used the words, ‘I put it to you that you killed your son by injecting him, suffocating him, hanging him up, and leaving him to die,' That's how it went, didn't it?”
Professor Southall answered, “That is not something I said; it is not something I would say to anybody.”
He also denied accusing the mother of removing drugs from the hospital where she worked as an auxiliary nurse and injecting them into her son. He said, “I did put it in my report, but I didn't say it to her face.” Professor Southall's report led the local authority to take Mrs M's second son into care.
Professor Southall added: “I understand that she may have felt she was being accused—and I am sorry for that, because it was going to inevitably be part of the response. But it had to be done for the child's sake.”
Professor Southall is facing a range of charges relating to six different children. He is accused of keeping secret medical records and failing to respect the privacy and dignity of parents.
He is currently suspended for three years from child protection work, after he was found guilty by the GMC in August 2004 of accusing another parent, Steve Clark, of murdering his children. That accusation was based on a television documentary Professor Southall had seen.
The current case has now been adjourned after it over-ran the allotted time. It will restart next November.