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British pathologist criticised by General Medical Council
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March 15, 2011
Original URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_pathologist_criticised_by_General_Medical_Council



Dr Freddy Patel, a former Home Office pathologist, has been criticised
by a panel at the , Britain's regulatory body for doctors. Dr Patel had
concluded that the death of Sally White in 2002, the first victim of 
(the so-called "Camden Ripper"), could have died from natural causes.

The report produced by Dr Patel concluded that Sally White had been
having consensual sex in her apartment when she died of a heart attack,
in spite of blood stains on her clothing, blood at the scene, damage to
Ms White's liver and bite marks. The GMC panel found that Dr Patel had
included inaccurate information on his CV and had shown "deficient
professional performance" in the evaluation of the cause of Sally
White's death. They concluded that this investigation was
"irresponsible, not of the standard expected of a competent forensic
pathologist and liable to bring the medical profession into disrepute".
Dr Patel is currently suspended and the decision of the panel may lead
to him being struck off.

The GMC had previously investigated Dr Patel and criticised his
investigation of the , a newspaper seller who died during the G20
protests in London. He concluded that the death was caused by coronary
heart disease; subsequent investigations by other pathologists showed
that he had died from internal bleeding caused by a blunt force
trauma–an assault by a police officer caught on video. The Director of
Public Prosecution noted afterwards that the mistakes in the forensic
pathology report by Dr Patel had made it significantly harder to bring
the police officer who fatally assaulted Ian Tomlinson to justice. Dr
Patel has also been investigated by the GMC for alleged misconduct in
the investigation of the deaths of two children.

== Related news ==
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== Sources == 
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/10/ian-tomlinson-pathologist-childrens-postmortems
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/14/freddy-patel-condemned-gmc
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12733830



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