Clark lionised as spotlight falls on justice system

The big legal story last week was, of course, the Court of Appeal's decision to free solicitor Sally Clark after three years in prison falsely convicted of murdering her two baby sons.

The media, many of whom had followed the story closely from her conviction in 1999, devoted acres of newsprint to the case.

Her picture made virtually every front page and the Daily Mail led with a photograph of Ms Clark in 1996, smiling and happy, juxtaposed with the gaunt and pale figure who emerged on the steps of the Court of Appeal seven years later (30 January).

'To hell and back' was the headline.

Inside, the paper carried moving interviews with her friends and campaigners Fiona Rosen and Geoffrey Wansell, and a less positive profile of the 'badly tarnished' expert pathologist Alan Williams, who has 'failed British justice'.

The paper pointed out that Dr Williams, was 'severely criticised in the Court of Appeal'.

He turned down the opportunity to explain himself to the court over key evidence - which he failed to reveal at the original trial - about another possible cause of death for one of the children.

The Mail's editorial sourly claimed that 'only the Criminal Cases Review Commission emerges with any credit from this fiasco,' and says the 'one redeeming feature in all this is that what British justice got wrong, it belatedly put right'.

The Daily Express (30 January) focused on Ms Clark's 'devoted' husband Steve, and his 'tireless battle to clear her name'.

Mr Clark 'trod a fine line between keeping Sally's case in the public mind and maintaining his own privacy', using 'his own skills as a solicitor' - he is a partner at a leading City law firm - 'to search, lobby and pester for evidence that would clear Sally of guilt'.

Also focusing on the man Ms Clark called 'my rock' was the Daily Mirror, which stressed how 'one thing has always been unquestionable - Sally Clark could not have survived three years in prison and emerged mentally and emotionally intact without husband Steve' (30 January).

The Sun called the case 'one of the most scandalous miscarriages of justice in years' (30 January) and demanded that 'serious questions about the conduct of this prosecution must be answered - and publicly'.

Dear Deidre, the Sun's renowned agony aunt, also had a few sage words to add to the pot: 'Sally can't help but be changed after being betrayed by the system she believed in...

she will have to find a way to channel that anger in a positive way, and I suspect we will eventually see her campaigning on some issue related to her suffering.'

The wider implications of the case must not be forgotten, The Independent argued, as the 'circumstances in which Ms Clark's case was quashed raise serious questions about the public's confidence in the criminal justice system' (30 January).

Specifically, the case highlights 'severe problems with our current system of disclosure', and 'raises questions on the standing of expert witnesses', it said.

In other legal news, the Express reported how 'killer au pair' Louise Woodward, who spent nine months in jail in the US for the manslaughter of a baby boy in her care, has been accepted onto the legal practice course at Manchester University (1 February).

Elsewhere, the prospect of CPS lawyers turning into Perry Mason-esque investigators came a bit closer this week, as the Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith urged prosecutors to become US-style 'fighters for justice' (Daily Telegraph, 30 January).

Relaunching the Crown Prosecution Service, he encouraged prosecutors to 'stop being the backroom boys of the criminal justice system' and suggested the system become more Americanised - although the paper stressed that 'he drew the line at prosecutors standing for election'.

Victoria MacCallum