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Alcohol killed mother Sally Clark | |
(10 minutes later) | |
An inquest into the death of a mother wrongly convicted of killing her two children ruled she died accidentally of acute alcohol intoxication. | An inquest into the death of a mother wrongly convicted of killing her two children ruled she died accidentally of acute alcohol intoxication. |
Solicitor Sally Clark, 42, of Hatfield Peverel, near Witham, Essex, was found dead at her home in March. | |
Mrs Clark was cleared of murdering her two sons, Christopher and Harry, who died in 1996 and 1998. | Mrs Clark was cleared of murdering her two sons, Christopher and Harry, who died in 1996 and 1998. |
Essex coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray said there was no evidence Mrs Clark intended to commit suicide. | |
Mrs Clark was found guilty of murdering eight-week-old Harry and 11-week-old Christopher in 1999 while she was living in Wilmslow, Cheshire. | |
'Miscarriage of justice' | |
She spent three years in jail for murder, before she was cleared by the Court of Appeal in January 2003. | |
In a statement following Mrs Clark's death her family said she "never fully recovered from the effects of this appalling miscarriage of justice". | |
During her trial, the court was told her children died within 14 months of each other and jurors had to decide whether their deaths were natural. | |
The expert evidence of paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow was a focal point throughout the trial and appeal. | |
He told jurors the probability of two natural unexplained cot deaths in one family was 73m-to-one. | |
The figure was disputed by the Royal Statistical Society and other medical experts who said the odds of a second cot death in a family were around 200-to-one. |