Royal commission call into discredited pathologist’s cases

Julie-Ann Pope is still seeking justice for her baby boy, 25 years after his death.

Julie-Ann Pope with a picture of her son Joshua who died 25 years ago. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Julie-Ann Pope is still seeking justice for her baby boy, 25 years after his death.

The 47-year-old mother from the Adelaide Hills is backing renewed calls from South Australian MPs and forensic experts for a royal commission into cases, such as her son’s, handled by discredited former state chief forensic pathologist Colin Manock.

Ms Pope spoke on the anniversary of the death of her son, Joshua Nottle, who was almost nine months old when he was found dead in his cot at 8:45am on August 17, 1993.

“I just want justice and closure for my son, and some peace,” Ms Pope said. “It is not just for me, but for all the others who faced injustice because of Dr Manock and the failure of anyone in government to do anything about it.”

Her son’s was the most serious of the so-called “Baby Deaths” case, when in 1992 and 1993 three infants were found by Dr Manock to have died of broncho-­pneumonia, a lung infection.

Dr Manock’s testimony was thoroughly discredited during an inquest between 1994 and 1995, when Coroner Wayne Chivell found deficient autopsies in the three cases had closed off police inquiries, and Dr Manock’s explanations under oath had been “spurious”, “incorrect” or otherwise unacceptable.

Baby Joshua had 15 fractured ribs, extensive bruising and a broken spine; Storm Deane had two possible skull fractures and four broken ribs; William Barnard had a broken arm that was left untreated for up to four weeks and extensive, festering nappy rash.

In Joshua’s case, the coroner concluded that Dr Manock had provided innocent explanations for the most serious injuries, “explanations I am now satisfied were incorrect”.

Police had initially arrested and charged Joshua’s father with murder, but this was downgraded to a serious assault charge once Dr Manock wrongly diagnosed death as from natural causes.

Despite these findings, the coroner’s report was withheld until Dr Manock’s work in ­another high-profile case — the 1994 “body-in-the-bath” death of Anna-Jane Cheney — was completed.

The coroner’s damning report was released two days after Cheney’s fiancee, Henry Keogh, was found guilty of murder, based on Dr Manock’s evidence.

It was not until 2015, after Mr Keogh had served 21 years in jail, that an appeal court ruled the jury in his second trial had been misled by Dr Manock and set aside his conviction.

Dr Manock was chief forensic pathologist between 1968 and 1995. He conducted more than 9000 autopsies and gave evidence in about 400 criminal trials. He had no formal qualifications as a pathologist.

Dr Manock’s evidence has also been questioned in several other murder cases.

This week, as hearings began at a parliamentary inquiry into Mr Keogh’s $2.57 million miscarriage-of-justice payout, upper house MP Frank Pangallo said his greatest concern was the quality of evidence from Dr Manock in hundreds of cases had never been properly investigated by the state.

“Perhaps the state has long been fearful of a tsunami of ­appeals and claims for compensation for wrongful convictions or false testimony that it conveniently overlooked,” Mr Pangallo said. “If all this doesn’t scream ‘royal commission’ into what went on for decades in this state, nothing does.’’

Dr Manock could not be contacted for comment.