Meadow’s Law

Meadow’s Law

A dictum based on Professor Sir Roy Meadow’s assertion that one sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder, until proved otherwise. The “law” was widely adopted by social workers and child protection agencies—e.g., UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Meadow’s Law formed the basis for the wrongful conviction of solicitor Sally Clark for murdering her two children. She was freed nearly four years later, but never recuperated from the loss of her babies and the miscarriage of justice, and died of alcoholism in 2007.