Networked Knowledge – Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

See the Mutual Recognition Act
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On 17 November, The Advertiser reported that a South Australian pathologist who had mistakenly claimed the murder of two people was caused by a car accident is facing possible de-registration in New South Wales.

The article said that a 2 day disciplinary hearing had started the day before over allegations that Dr Allan Cala, from the South Australian Forensic Science Centre, was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct whilst working at the mortuary in Glebe, Sydney 6 years ago.

Apparently, the NSW Medical Board Professional Standards Committee is examining how Dr Cala wrote a post mortem report based upon the wrong person after he apparently typed in an incorrect file number into a computer.

The article said that Dr Cala’s alleged error emerged only after the adopted son of the murdered couple, Bill and Pamela Weightman, had confessed that he and an accomplice had in fact murdered his parents.

The article states that the State Government has ordered all of Dr Cala’s work at the Forensic Science centre to be peer reviewed until the matter in NSW is finalised.

[Note: If Dr Cala were to be de-registered in NSW, then it would automatically apply in South Australia under the legislation governing reciprocal arrangements between states. It should also be noted that the relevant legal cases require that such work should normally be peer reviewed as part of an appropriate standard operating procedure]

Source: The Advertiser 17 November 2006

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