Networked Knowledge – Media Report

[This version of the report has been edited by Dr Robert N Moles
Underlining where it occurs is for editorial emphasis]

Dr Allan Cala homepage
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Article: UK law on miscarriages of justice
Article: USA law on miscarriages of justice

On 29 May 2007 Colin James, the Legal Affairs Editor of The Advertiser in South Australia reported that: “Forensic expert is found guilty”

He said, a senior State Government forensic pathologist who mistakenly examined the wrong computer file has been found guilty of professional misconduct. Former State Forensic Science Centre chief pathologist Dr Allan Cala has been formally censured and fined $5500 for blaming the murder of a Sydney couple on a motor vehicle accident.

An inquiry by the NSW Medical Board found Dr Cala wrote a post-mortem examination report based on incorrect brain test results, after typing the wrong file number into his computer. There has never been any suggestion of deliberate deception, only human error.

Dr Cala was referred to the board’s professional standards committee by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, which last year investigated a formal complaint lodged by relatives of Bill and Pamela Weightman.

Mr and Mrs Weightman were suffocated by their adopted son and a male accomplice in 2000 before their bodies were put into a car and dumpted in a national park. Dr Cala ruled out any suspicious circumstances in his report to the NSW State Coroner John Abernethy,  which was officially reviewed after the son later confessed he killed them for an inheritance.

Dr Cala has given expert evidence in dozens of criminal cases in NSW and SA, including numerous murder trials. He moved to Adelaide from Sydney in 2003 to become the state’s chief forensic pathologist, a position he held for two years. His work is being peer reviewed.

Source: 29 May 2007 Colin James Legal Affairs Editor The Advertiser “Forensic expert is found guilty”

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