McWilliam

Letter from Ken Norman, Chairman of Portia, to the BBC.

26th April 2002

I wish to complain strongly about the "Homeground" documentary on April 25. The main argument was that if either parent may have killed a child, then both should be put on trial for murder. This is a recipe for getting at least a 50% rate of false conviction.

The main venom was directed against Simon McWilliam and his wife Michelle, then living in Portslade, Sussex. Although there was no suggestion that both had responsibility, neither could be ruled out, and originally there were murder charges against each of them. This is a highly effective means of causing a split, with each seeking to invent evidence against the other. Michelle was barren, and so they began the adoption of two young children, not wanting babies. Originally there were to have been three, because the Social Services said: "You can't split a family. Have all three or none." Then they changed their minds.

The McWillam's adopted a boy, John, and a girl, Emily. It began to appear that she had Downs Syndrome, and a policewoman thought so too, but apparently she does not. But the McWilliam's were furious with the Social Services for providing a boy with problems, although specifically asked for normal, healthy kids. The response: "Well, he wasn't very abnormal."

A disciplinary panel is investigating the Social Services people involved, for the way they handled the case.

Both Simon and Michelle received eight-year sentences for supposedly causing cruelty and unnecessary suffering to a child. An appeal has been lodged.

Simon, by his first wife, had a son born with deformities (he never left hospital and died in his 14th week) and a daughter now aged 17.

From Day 1 John presented difficulties, projectile-vomiting at will - once on to Simon's birthday cake from a distance of four feet. This was witnessed by Simon's parents. They also witnessed the child dragging/pushing his face along carpets, causing extensive bruising, discoloration and even eye damage. This was reported to the Social Services more than once but was waived away as being of no consequence. They had never heard of carpet-burning, but it was dreadful, says the grandfather.

The child would run at speed into trees or walls, to head-bang - and I have seen one of my own grandsons behave similarly. A more frequent thing was to open a door straight on to his face, as witnessed by the grandparents. He also trapped his young sister's hand in the door, squeezing it hard.

One of John's most destructive habits was to throw himself downstairs, even from the fifth or sixth stair.

His natural father is alleged to be a paedophile, who had exposed himself to John saying "one day yours will be as big as mine."

It is claimed that John was seen to tug at his penis so hard, in an attempt to make it big, as to have split the skin. (In court the allegation was that Simon had made this cut with a pair of scissors, but as was pointed out, scissors have two cutting surfaces; this was a single split.)

Two days before Christmas Simon's parents arrived from France for a reunion. (John had thrown himself downstairs a couple of days previously). Simon went out early, to shop. Michelle went to awaken John but could not do so. He was ambulanced to hospital and found to have brain haemorrhage. Because of damage to the face, caused by his habit of scraping against the carpet, the immediate reaction of police, to Simon, was: "You struck him in the face with your fist. You killed him."

The police attitude throughout the investigation was that anything that happened during the last three days of John's life was of interest. Anything else, they did not wish to hear.

He was found to have 54 bruises but the pathologist who would have given evidence for the defence died before he could do so. He would have said there was no deep bruising; it was all fingertip bruising. The grandfather says he was present in hospital when police took photographs of the bruises, and these were eventually shown in court and reproduced in the media. But, says the grandfather (himself a photographer), there was special lighting and filmstock to make the bruises more prominent. .

Both Michelle and Simon deny ever harming the child, and there is no evidence that either did so.

One specialist has said that John was probably suffering a condition called Smiths Magennis Syndrome - children who harm themselves. A split chromosome is responsible and if any part of the brain remains, it could be identified. Children suffering this feel no pain. A Canadian expert has spoken of a child who pulled out his own finger-nails. A two-year-old girl in Tasmania has been photographed bashing her head on a tiled floor. She has part of the 17th chromosome missing. and the result of this is a happy, smiling child with unpredictable bouts of life-threatening violence to herself.

While all this was going on Simon took a degree course at Brighton University and got BA(Hon).

Ken Norman
Portia Campaign chairman.

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