Stolen Innocence: A Mother's Fight for Justice

by John Batt

To lose one child is terrible; to lose two is unimaginable. For no one to believe that you are innocent of their deaths and to be imprisoned because of it must be unbearable.

Yet this is the reality Sally Clark had to face. The daughter of a policeman, wife of a solicitor and a solicitor herself, just when she was grieving from the tragic death of her second child the system she'd always believed in turned against her. Justice suddenly seemed a far-off principle as she was convicted and her initial appeal quashed. Her family, lawyers and various volunteers were relentless in their fight to clear her name. Finally, following three long years in prison, suffering abuse and the bleak horrow of bereavement, Sally Clark was finally acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2003.

Her release caught the nation's attention, and paved the way for succesful appeals by wrongly convicted mothers such as Angela Canning. Written with the power of a thriller, the book is a tragic but ultimately uplifting story of a mother's love and a family's gutsy fight for what they knew to be right.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Biography, Medicine

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jeanius · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1998 Sally Clark, a solicitor from Wilmslow, was convicted of the murder of her infant child, Harry and a previous child, Christopher. She was jailed for life. Her family and friends, including the author, a solicitor, worked tirelessly for three and a half years to take her case to appeal. The first appeal failed but she was freed on a second appeal, mainly because of new medical evidence which had been witheld, deliberately or otherwise from the defence at the time of the original trial. Also, evidence give by an eminent paediatrician, which had hugely influenced the trial, was subsequently discredited.
Sally was released from prison in 2002. She never recovered from her ordeal and died last year from alcohol related illness and a broken heart.
This book tells her story.

[Celeste Marinus]

I remember being so angry and disgusted while reading the court proceedings of Sally’s trial in this book. Who in their right mind convicts an innocent woman of murder when clearly there is no evidence that Sally murdered her babies? It also makes you wonder how a prosecution got it right to get a conviction based on flakey evidence. You don’t need to be a judge, a prosecutor or a lawyer to see all the evidence that was produced was not supposed to be admissible. That the evidence the prosecution brought forward had no merit and was not even solid as well as some of their witness that was supposed to be professionals.

Please check out my full review on: http://bookshelvesandwindowseats.word...

[Deborah Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sad story 😞

[Nicola Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book wrote on behalf of a woman's fight for justice

[Lord Bathcanoe of Snark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am all for exposing miscarriages of justice, and some writer's have done admirably in that respect, but this account relies too heavily on Sally Clark being innocent because as a solicitor she would be incapable of wrongdoing. I suppose some people believed that Harold Shipman was incapable of murder simply because he was a doctor.
I found it very condescending that the reader was constantly expected to believe that an individual would not lie or do anything devious simply because of their profession.
Sally Clark may well have been innocent, but this writer's approach to the case is annoying in its patronising manner.

[Penny Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a heartbreaking book. The way this poor woman and her family were treated is disgusting. Not able to grieve for there poor baby sons. Just heartbreaking

[Bleu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot decide whether to scream or weep.

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sally Clark faced one of the cruellest miscarriages of justice when she was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of her two children. This book by a solicitor who knew her well speaks in her voice. It's harrowing and haunting but needs to be read.

[Amy-louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

after studying about crime at uni, to read of the evidence, or lack thereof, which sally was convicted on was ridiculous! the mistakes made from an expert should have got this case thrown straight out!

[Eva-Marie Nevarez]

This is on the back burner for the moment- nothing on the books part though- totally me. Hopefully I'll get back into it before long or else it's going back to the shelf for awhile longer.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

a vey sad true life story

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very powerful and sad, but compulsive reading. Read it many years ago, and even more saddened to think that this terrible story culminated in suicide.