Professor Sir Samuel Roy Meadow


A British paediatrician known for his work on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. He was knighted for his crusade against abuse of children by their parents. Meadow’s Law—'One sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder'—was widely adopted by social workers and child protection agencies in the UK. He fell from grace when the General Medical Council found that he had offered 'erroneous' and 'misleading' evidence in the case of Sally Clark and other mothers, and struck him from the register (he was later reinstated). The validity of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy has not been universally accepted.