Sally Clark was 'let down' by authorities

Police not ruling out suicide as friends say mother had no post-jail support

Friends of Sally Clark, who died on Friday, yesterday attacked the authorities for failing to support her after she was freed from prison.

Clark was wrongly jailed for the murder of her two sons and was later cleared. Angela Cannings, who was also falsely convicted for the murder of her two sons and was close to Clark, launched an angry broadside against health and social service teams for leaving the former solicitor to cope without professional help.

Police say suicide has not been ruled out as a possible cause of death, but friends said Clark had 'turned a corner' and they thought it was unlikely she would have taken her life. A Home Office pathologist is due to carry out a post-mortem examination tomorrow.

'I'm angry,' Cannings said. 'When you come out of the Appeal Court, you think somebody is going to help you. But we had nothing. I thought there would be phone calls and the like from social services and health professionals but not one organisation came to us.'

Cannings called for an urgent overhaul in the way the authorities deal with people who have been victims of miscarriages of justice. 'Isn't it about time that somebody in government looked at the help that is offered to people like Sally when they come out? We need some sort of organisation that specifically caters for the needs of people who have suffered this kind of trauma.'

Cannings's husband, Terry, now suffers from clinical depression, while their daughter, who has not been to school for three years, suffers from 'separation anxiety'. 'I don't know how we cope,' said Cannings, who has been attempting to get more help for her daughter from local social services, but without success so far. 'We just go from day to day.'

'The government has a duty to look after innocent people when they come out of prison,' said John McManus of the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation. 'The fact they get no offer of help, no counselling, is a great shame on the government.'

Penny Mellor, a friend of the Clark family, said that Mrs Clark's time in prison had left a stain on the rest of her life. She was assaulted by other prisoners and lived in fear that they would try to poison her food. 'If you've been convicted as a child killer you become a focal point for all the hatred in prison,' Mellor said.

Mrs Clark, 42, was found guilty of murdering her sons, Christopher and Harry, but was cleared by the Court of Appeal in 2003 in a landmark ruling that highlighted serious flaws in the use of evidence provided by expert witnesses. She was found to have been wrongly convicted of the two murders after medical evidence emerged which had not been presented at her trial.

Professor Sir Roy Meadow gave evidence during her trial, claiming that the probability of two natural unexplained cot deaths in the family was 73 million to one. That figure was disputed by the Royal Statistical Society and other medical experts, who said the odds of a second cot death in a family were around 200-1. Meadow was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck off the medical register. However, both of these decisions were overturned on appeal at the High Court.

Mrs Clark's husband, Stephen, and their surviving son used to live in Wilmslow, Cheshire, but moved south to Chelmsford to be closer to her when she was in prison in Essex.

A statement released by the Clark family solicitor yesterday said: 'Sally was released in 2003 having been wrongfully imprisoned for more than three years, falsely accused of the murder of her two sons. Sadly, she never fully recovered from the effects of this appalling miscarriage of justice.'

Asked about a suspected cause of death, family solicitor Sue Stapeley refused to comment. 'I think it would be very unwise to speculate,' Stapeley said. 'She was not suffering from any kind of disease at the time of her death but she was not in the best of health.'