Tuesday 31 August 2010

Tomlinson Pathologist Guilty Of Misconduct

From the Press Association. More on this later.


A disciplinary panel has ruled that the pathologist who carried out the first autopsy on Ian Tomlinson who died at last year's G20 protest in central London, acted in a way that amounted to misconduct during two earlier post-mortem examinations and his fitness to practise is impaired.

The panel also ruled that Dr Freddy Patel displayed deficient professional performance in a third post-mortem exam.

The panel had already concluded that Dr Patel was "irresponsible" and failed to meet professional standards during his examinations of the bodies of a five-year-old girl in 2002, a four-week-old baby in 2003 and a woman who died in 2005.

Dr Patel, 63, was said by the panel to have behaved irresponsibly, failed to meet standards expected of a Home Office pathologist and acted in a way liable to bring the profession into disrepute when he changed the woman's cause of death in 2005.

He carried out a post-mortem examination on January 5, and decided she had died due to a blood clot in the coronary arteries.

A month later, following a second post-mortem exam by another pathologist, he prepared an addendum to his report, changing the cause of death to a brain haemorrhage in line with the new findings.

During the ruling panel chairman Richard Davies said Dr Patel's "acts and omissions were very serious" and amounted to misconduct and his failure to note the weights of individual organs examined, recommended in Royal College of Pathologists' guidance, also showed deficient professional performance.

Dr Patel, whose full name is Mohmed Saeed Sulema Patel, has already been suspended from the Home Office register of forensic pathologists amid questions about his post-mortem examination of Mr Tomlinson.

The 47-year-old newspaper seller died during London's G20 riots in April last year after being pushed to the ground by a police officer.

Dr Patel's competency was called into question after two other pathologists agreed that Mr Tomlinson, who was an alcoholic, died as a result of internal bleeding, probably from his diseased liver, after falling on his elbow.

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