David Eady Appeal for his conduct during the 2009 libel case involving Richard Desmond and Tom Bower. Eady disallowed several pieces of evidence against Desmond which the Appeal Court ruled were clearly relevant to the case. The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Eady's decision was "plainly wrong" and "might lead to a miscarriage of justice". After hearing the evidence, the jury found in favour of Bower. In December 2009, Eady commented in "The Guardian" on some of this criticism, saying that "The media have nowhere to vent their frustrations other than through personal abuse of the particular judge who happens to
Cynthia Bower the two merged. In July 2006, Bower became Chief Executive of the NHS West Midlands, a major regional Strategic Health Authority which included responsibility for Stafford Hospital. NHSWM rejected the noted high death rates as a statistical blip. Bower later admitted that the situation at Stafford "wasn’t on my radar." In July 2009, the then Labour Government set up the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to replace three other quangos. Bower was appointed Chief Executive, on a salary of £195,000, The CQC oversees the NHS, social care and mental health, mandated to register and oversee 20,000 hospitals, care homes and clinics.