James Malcolm Cameron
Professor James Malcolm Cameron (1930-2003) was a leading forensic pathologist.[1]
Maxwell Confait case
A 1977 report to the House of Commons made a number of criticisms of Professor Cameron's role in the Maxwell Confait case, after three boys convicted in the case were released on appeal.[2]
John Boyle case
Following the shooting of John Boyle in Dunloy, Northern Ireland by the SAS in 1978, SAS Director Peter De La Billiere sought Cameron's evidence in the case:
- I was authorised to commission a second examination of the body, this time by Dr James Cameron, a well-known pathologist who had often worked for the Metropolitan Police. He showed that the dead man had been shot through the head from the front, and that as he fell two more bullets had entered his back, making a downward track towards is left hip.
- In due course the case came up in court and ran for a week. Cameron's evidence, supported by photographs, had a strong influence, and the defendants were cleared, although the judge expressed reservations.[3]
Chamberlain Case
Cameron testified in a controversial 1983 Australian trial that led to the conviction, later overturned, of Lindy Chamberlain following the disappearance of her daugher Azaria near Uluru/Ayers Rock:
- A less-than-professional response from police, including one of them who moved the baby's clothing without first having it photographed, was followed by equally lackadaisical performances from other professionals. Professor James Cameron, the acclaimed British forensic pathologist, sternly proclaimed he could discern the print of the "bloodied" hand of a young adult on the jumpsuit. As it was later conceded, he had not tested whether the material was blood. It wasn't.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Professor James Malcolm Cameron (1930–2003), Cameron Forensic Medical Sciences, William Harvey Research Institute.
- ↑ Report of an Inquiry by the Hon. Sir Henry Fisher into the circumstances leading to the trial of three persons on charges arising out of the death of Maxwell Confait and the fire at 27 Doggett Road, London SE6, 12 December 1977, p.21.
- ↑ Peter De La Billiere, Looking for Trouble: SAS to Gulf Command - The Autobiography, Harper Collins, 1995, p.316.
- ↑ Malcolm Brown, Mother of all mysteries, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2004.
