POST-MORTEM DISPUTE OVER ANNASTACIA WILLIAMS’ DEATH

Published: 30 July, 2010
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS

A LEADING detective brought in to investigate the death of a five-year-old Islington girl said yesterday (Thursday) he wrote to a London police chief to complain about a pathologist’s work. 

A General Medical Council (GMC) fitness-to-practise hearing into the work of Dr Freddy Patel also heard how Dr Patel’s findings were “vehemently” rebutted as “nonsense” by another pathologist during a second post-mortem into the child’s death.

The professional disagreement arose between Dr Patel and Dr Nat Carey, one of the country’s top pathologists, as the pair examined the exhumed body of Annastacia Williams at St Pancras Mortuary in October 2002.

The girl died from severe head injuries at Great Ormond Street Hospital on September 17, 2002, after she was thrown against a piece of furniture by her stepmother, Christine Green, who was later convicted of child cruelty.  

At the time of her death, Dr Patel, 63, accepted the parents’ version of events and said she died from head injuries consistent with falling down the stairs. 

He found there were “no significant marks of violence” on her body. But a second post-mortem – ordered by the police after fears that the girl had been abused came to light – revealed she had bruising, bite marks on her body and fork marks in her arm. 

Dr Carey, who conducted the second autopsy with Dr Patel, ultimately ruled out a fall down the stairs and instead suggested she had died as a result of being thrown against a floor or wall. 

At an Old Bailey trial in 2003, Annastacia’s father Ken Williams and her stepmother Ms Green were sentenced to six years in prison after the court heard she had been attacked with a fork and bitten by her stepmother for being “too pretty”. 

Yesterday, the investigating officer in the case, Detective Superintendent David Shephard, described the scene that unfolded at St Pancras Mortuary as the two pathologists disagreed about the origin of the marks on her body. 

He said: “There were clear marks on the torso and bruises all over the body. There was a series of crescent-shaped marks on the torso which Dr Patel and Dr Carey discussed. Dr Patel was of the opinion that they were chicken pox and Dr Carey vehemently contradicted that. 

“He said: ‘That’s nonsense – they’re obviously fingermarks,’ which was obviously vindicated at a later stage. A blood test showed the child never had chicken pox.” 

Describing his own view of the marks, he added: “It was obvious to a lay person these marks were not natural causes.”

Det Supt Shephard was so concerned about the discussion between the two pathologists that he wrote soon after to his boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Andrew Murphy, unit commander of the Met’s Homicide Serious Crime Command, alerting him to the apparent failings in Dr Patel’s findings. 

The GMC wrote to Dr Patel a year later, in 2004, informing him it was investigating a number of his findings. Last year he was suspended from carrying out autopsies into suspicious death cases. 

He is still employed by Dr Andrew Reid, the St Pancras coroner, to carry out non-suspicious death post-mortems in Camden and Islington.  

Det Supt Shephard said he sent the letter to his boss “mainly based on my observations of the conversation between those two pathologists” and that in it he “raised matters in relation to Dr Patel’s conduct in relation to two post-mortems”. 

He said it was crucial a pathologist got findings right as that could make or break a criminal investigation.

After Dr Patel found Annastacia died from falling down stairs, she was buried and a police investigation was triggered only after an anonymous tip from a family member or friend, saying “all was not as it seemed and police should investigate further”, Det Supt Shephard told the hearing. A skeletal survey confirmed fears that her death was suspicious, he added.

Earlier this week, Professor Sebastian Lucas, also a forensic pathologist, described Dr Patel’s work as “bad practice” after he failed to open the head in a post-mortem also under investigation by the GMC, and failed to find the correct cause of death. 

The hearing, which is investigating four charges against Dr Patel, continues.