Disgraced pathologist Charles Smith doesn’t show up for harsh reprimand

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario didn’t mince words in what may well be the final official reprimand of Dr. Charles Smith: egregious, repulsive, disgraced, abhorrence, abysmal.

But they were all directed at an empty chair — the disgraced forensic pathologist didn’t turn up.

“We all knew he wasn’t going to show,” said Tammy Marquardt, who spent 14 years in prison for the death of her son as a result of Smith’s faulty testimony. “He’s not man enough to stand up and take what’s due to him.”

The college revoked Smith’s medical licence last month and ordered him to show up for Friday’s reprimand, but didn’t have the power to compel him to attend.

The public dressing-down provided a “minuscule” comfort to Marquardt, whose 1995 second-degree murder conviction is one of several Smith cases the Court of Appeal has overturned.

While Smith may not have been in the room, the college still came down hard on the doctor, expressing its “abhorrence” of his conduct years after his mistakes became clear.

“Your transgressions were egregious in nature, repulsive in result, and caused irreparable harm to many innocent victims,” panel chairman Marc Gabel said to the chair reserved for Smith. “You had a duty to the public, to the administration of justice and to your profession. Your failure in all of these respects is abominable to this panel, to your fellow physicians and, as importantly, to the public.”

Smith’s actions compromised the administration of justice and he did not act morally, ethically or with the best interests of patients, Gabel said.

“By your actions you abysmally failed to do so in these areas and have subsequently disgraced our profession,” he said. “We publicly deplore and denounce your behaviour.”

Once considered an unassailable expert on child forensic pathology, an inquiry found that errors in Smith’s work were responsible, in part, for several people being wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for killing children.

In addition to the inquiry coming down hard on Smith, other reports and reviews have noted his errors and his findings have been lambasted numerous times in court in recent years.

With his medical licence revoked, Smith is not expected to face further sanctions so the college may have the last word.

Smith failed to gather relevant information and conduct appropriate investigations, he referenced social situations of parents that were irrelevant to the pathology and gave unscientific, speculative and unsubstantiated opinions, the college said.

In Marquardt’s case she said she found her two-year-old son tangled in his bed sheets, but Smith testified he was strangled or suffocated. Her conviction was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal last month and a new trial was ordered.

When Smith appeared before the Goudge Inquiry into pediatric forensic pathology he apologized and said his errors weren’t intentional. But Marquardt said the apologies, medical licence revocation and reprimand aren’t enough to make up for the 14 years she spent in prison.

“Personally I’d like to see him to go jail, at least feel a little bit of what we felt: fear for your life on a daily basis,” Marquardt said. “Live your life on a constant fight or flight and tell me how your body’s going to hold up to that.”

Smith’s lawyer sent a letter to the college on Thursday saying her client wouldn’t attend the reprimand. A request to his lawyer for comment was not immediately returned Friday. Smith was last heard to be living in British Columbia.

He pleaded no contest to the professional misconduct and incompetence findings on which the college stripped him of his licence. Smith has not practised medicine since August 2008, when his registration expired.

A spokeswoman for the college said that Smith would be eligible to re-apply for his licence one year after it was revoked, but in this case he wouldn’t likely succeed.