Gross misconduct

When Ontario’s top court quashed Tammy Marquardt’s murder conviction in the death of her son, attention turned to the disgraced pathologist whose testimony helped send her to prison.

Two decades before the ruling in February 2011, Charles Smith was a well-respected forensic child pathologist.

In the 1990s, he was regarded as a superstar, the first pathologist to use CT scans on remains, revealing signs of child abuse for the first time.

He became the most active and well-respected pathologist in the country, but Smith’s career would eventually end in disgrace.

Smith was born in Toronto and adopted by a military family that moved around Canada and Germany during his childhood.

Smith attended medical school at the University of Saskatchewan and graduated in 1975.

He was first hired at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1979, and began conducting child autopsies there two years later.

By the late 90s, Smith performed more autopsies than any pathologist in Canada. Over his 24 years at SickKids, Smith conducted more than 1,000 autopsies on children.

In several cases, the bodies of dead children were exhumed to be examined by Smith, leading to new murder charges.

The doctor would also appear in court to offer expert testimony, giving his opinion on how the child died.

Questions first arose about his work in 1991, when Smith determined that a baby in Timmins, Ont. died from being shaken.

A 12-year-old babysitter looking after the child when it died said the baby fell down the stairs. She was charged with manslaughter.

The babysitter’s parents hired experts from around the world to defend their daughter. These experts called Smith’s findings in to question, and Justice Patrick Dunn sided with them, slamming Smith in the process.

Smith resigned from SickKids in 2005 amidst an investigation by Ontario chief coroner Dr. Barry McLellan. He took a pathology position in Saskatoon but was fired after three months.

He was later reinstated by a tribunal but is unable to practice after letting his medical license expire.

McLellan’s review was released in April 2007, and determined that he had made errors in investigations of 20 criminally suspicious child deaths between 1991 and 2001.

Of these 20 investigations, 13 had resulted in criminal convictions.

This led to a public inquiry into both his work and Ontario’s pediatric forensic pathology system generally, led by Justice Stephen Goudge.

The pathologist admitted he made mistakes and his training in forensic pathology was "woefully inadequate."

The inquiry determined that Smith “actively misled" his superiors, and "made false and misleading statements" in court. Goudge determined that "Smith lacked basic knowledge about forensic pathology.”

In 2010, the Ontario government announced it would provide compensation to the families who suffered from his mistakes.

High-profile cases involving Dr. Charles Smith:

William Mullins-Johnson

William Mullins-Johnson spent 12 years in prison after being found guilty in 1994 of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl in his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Several experts later found no evidence to support Dr. Smith’s conclusion that the girl had been sodomized and asphyxiated. In fact, they concluded she died of natural causes.

In October 2010, the Ontario government announced that Mullins-Johnson would receive $4.25 million in compensation for the wrongful conviction.

Louise Reynolds

In 1997, 28-year-old single mother Louise Reynolds was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her seven-year old daughter Sharon.

She was accused of stabbing her more than 80 times with a pair of scissors and much of the case rested on Dr. Smith’s 10-page autopsy report.

In January 2001, after Reynolds had spent 22 months in custody, the Crown abruptly dropped the charges.

Numerous experts, including Crown witnesses, disagreed with Smith and agreed that a powerful dog had mauled the girl to death.

Sherry Sherret-Robinson

In 1996, Sherry Sherret was convicted of infanticide in the death of her four-month-old son Joshua.

Sherret was jailed on the basis of Smith’s opinion that her baby had a skull fracture, and that he had been smothered. Sherret served eight months in total, and was entered into the child abuse registry.

On Dec. 7, 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal exonerated Sherret, stating that it was "profoundly regrettable that due to flaws in pathological evidence" she was wrongfully convicted.