Sally Clark

Sally Clark 1964-2007





 
 
Sally Clark

Sally Clark - Inquest 7th November 2007

Press statement from Sally's family and précis of information leading to verdict of accidental death

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.

Having suffered what was acknowledged by the Court of Appeal to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice of recent years, it is hardly surprising that her ordeal over 10 years, culminated in the diagnosis of 'Enduring Personality Change after Catastrophic Experience', 'Protracted Grief Reaction' and 'Alcohol Dependency Syndrome' and that she was never able to return to being the happy, kind and generous person we all knew and loved.

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 protect not only infants but also their innocent parents.

The family would like to thank the thousands of people whose confidence in Sally never wavered, particularly the many lawyers, politicians, doctors and friends who worked and supported her tirelessly. Not least those journalists who quickly realised that something had gone terribly wrong.

Lastly, we should like to thank HM Coroner and her staff, for their sensitive consideration of the family.

NB: The family will be making no other statement or granting any interviews and hopes to be allowed to return to some kind of normality. The media are reminded that all details of Sally's surviving child, their whereabouts and who cares for them continue to be protected by a Court injunction.

Issued on behalf of Sally's family by Sue Stapely
Quiller Consultants, T 020 7233 9444, M 07885 798833 [these contact details are now out of date; October 2011]


crown

INQUEST

PRÉCIS

This Inquest touches upon the death of Sally Clark, a lady aged 42 years who was born on 15th August 1964.

The circumstances leading to this unfortunate death are that in 1998 Mrs Clark was arrested on suspicion of the murder of her two sons. In November 1999 she was convicted of those offences and imprisoned.

Mrs Clark was released from prison on 29th January 2003 following a successful appeal against conviction and attempted to rebuild her life. 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. These problems included Enduring Personality Change after Catastrophic Experience, Protracted Grief Reaction and Alcohol Dependency Syndrome. With the complete support of her husband and family, she attended various Hospitals and Clinics in an attempt to overcome this problem.

On 16th March 2007 Mrs Clark was found in her bed, by her cleaner, apparently not breathing. Paramedics attended and confirmed that Mrs Clark had died.

A Post Mortem examination was carried out a Broomfield Hospital by Dr David Rouse, a Home Office Forensic Pathologist, and he requested that Histology and Toxicology samples be taken and analysed.

Toxicology showed that alcohol was detected at a concentration of 428mg per 100ml, more than 5 times the drink drive limit.

Having received the results of all of the examinations Dr Rouse was able to give a cause of death as:

Acute Alcohol Intoxication

No witnesses are being called.




Site last modified Wed Oct 12 09:58:06 BST 2011