Stolen Innocence: A Mother's Fight for Justice

(Paperback)

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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 Saliy Clark had to face. The daughter of a policeman, wife of a solicitor and also one herself, she suddenly found the system that she'd upheld all her life turning 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. Following three long years in prison, Sally Clark was finally acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2003. As Lord Justice Judge said 'Unless we are sure of guilt, the dreadful possibility always remains that a mother, already brutally scarred by the unexplained deaths of her babies, may find herself in prison for life for killing them when she should not be there at all.' Written with the power of a thriller, the book reveals the Kafka-esque nightmare of being on the wrong side of the law. But ultimately, it's an uplifting story of one family's gutsy fight for what they know to be right.

Reviews

This fascinating book burns with moral outrage * The Observer *
Makes haunting reading * The Sunday Times *
Moving and harrowing * The Sun *
This book is a disturbing read. It is a terrible indictment of the criminal system, the legal profession, and our own experts * British Medical Journal *
Well written and has the same unputdownable quality as a good novel. But a novel it is not. What happened to Sally makes you want to spit... This is a book that should be read by all solicitors * Solicitors Journal *

Author Bio

John Batt has written extensively about the law, mainly for television in the YTV drama series, The Main Chance and Justice. A solicitor himself, this is the first time he has written about a case in which he was personally involved. He has known Sally Clark all her life and was at her side, at trial, with a watching brief for the family. For the three and a half years, he worked full-time as part of her appeal team, visiting Sally regularly in prison. He lives in Surrey with his wife Jane. He has two daughters, Gina and Joanna, and a son, Charles, with three grandchildren in America.