Cecil Clothier - Allitt Inquiry

Allitt Inquiry

In 1994 at the age of 74, Clothier was appointed to head an inquiry into how a nurse, Beverley Allitt, who was later diagnosed as an untreatable psychopath, was able to kill four children and attack nine others at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital. Clothier trenchantly refused to hold a public inquiry, earning him vociferous hostility from both the victims' families and widespread criticism from the media. Clothier reasoned that people were capable of telling blatant lies under oath. In the absence of friends, colleagues, parents and the press, witnesses could speak with "a frankness which can be startling". Clothier continued that "if you really want to know what people are thinking in an extremely delicate matter, you need to see them in circumstances when they do not feel threatened." Clothier was asked about the similar case of Dr Harold Shipman in 2000 and explained that few people could be found to criticise colleagues with whom they had to work the next day, let alone voice suspicions about them committing very grave crimes. "Most witnesses at a public inquiry say as little as possible and do their best to withhold their innermost thoughts", Clothier remarked. "At an inquiry held in private people gradually relax and unburden themselves of a truth which may have been tormenting them for years."