By: Nicola Byrne, Michael O’Farrell, Alison O’Reilly
THE resignation of the Deputy State Pathologist (pictured right) yesterday came less than a month after his boss, Marie Cassidy, wrote a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions complaining about the quality of his evidence.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has also learned that the State Pathologist for Northern Ireland Prof. Jack Crane wrote to the Department of Justice complaining about Dr Jaber.
Controversy erupted yesterday when letters Dr Jaber had written complaining about State Pathologist Prof. Cassidy emerged.
The Department of Justice confirmed his resignation, and yesterday issued a statement insisting the resignation ‘will not prevent the prosecution of criminal cases where medical examinations have been carried out by Dr Jaber in his capacity as Deputy State Pathologist.
In this context Dr Jaber can be called as a witness by the prosecution and give evidence before the relevant court.’ However, the MoS can reveal that Prof. Cassidy had already taken the unusual step of formally raising ‘serious concerns’ about Dr Jaber’s report in a pending murder trial.
Prof. Cassidy had asked another pathologist colleague to re-examine the evidence relating to the death.
Her colleague reported back, causing Prof. Cassidy ‘concern’ and she said she felt it was ‘her duty to share these concerns’ with the DPP Claire Loftus. Prof. Cassidy wrote that the cause of death in the case was ‘complex and most likely multi-faceted’ and that Dr Jaber’s evidence ‘failed to reflect this’.
Prof. Cassidy also said there was ‘no background’ in Dr Jaber’s evidence and there was ‘no mention of the vast amounts of blood. Hypothermia was not taken into account.’ Dr Jaber resigned yesterday as it emerged he had written a series of letters criticising Prof Cassidy, suggesting she was not sufficiently qualified to hold the job.
The Saudi-born pathologist had apparently been unhappy with the running of the Office of the State Pathologist for some time.
His claims were disputed by the Department of Justice, which, although declining to make any public comment on his concerns, has backed Prof. Cassidy’s credentials.
Meanwhile the MoS has learned that the State Pathologist for Northern Ireland, Prof Jack Crane, has also written a letter of complaint concerning Dr Jaber to the Department. Prof Crane gave evidence in a trial earlier this year in which Dr Jaber’s evidence was largely responsible for the conviction of Colm Deely, 41, for the murder of Deirdre McCarthy in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, in 2011.
Lawyers for Colm Deely say they are attempting to fast-track an appeal against his conviction over the issue of Dr Jaber’s evidence in the trial. Lawyers for Deely are seeking to having Dr Jaber’s evidence re-examined. ‘We have a date for an appeal coming up but we will be asking for an earlier date so our client’s appeal can be heard quickly,’ said Gearoid Geraghty, solicitor for Deely.
Deely had admitted to the manslaughter of Ms McCarthy but not to her murder. Dr Jaber’s evidence at the trial found that death was due to asphyxia due to manual strangulation and that there had been blunt force trauma to the head, trunk and extremities.
He also suggested that Deely had gouged out his victim’s eyes before he killed her.
But Prof. Crane, giving evidence for the defence, told the court that bruising found on the body did not indicate Ms McCarthy was assaulted before she died. He disagreed with the suggestion that Deely had removed his victim’s eyes and says it was far more likely they were pecked out by birds.
Dr Jaber, originally from Riyadh in Saudia Arabia, graduated in the 1980s. He worked in Saudia Arabia, the UK and the US before coming to Ireland to work in 2009.
The 55-year-old has an Irish wife and took time out to train as a forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh, receiving his certification in 2010 from the American Board of Pathology.
The MoS has been reporting on rising tensions in the State Pathologist’s office for some time. It first reported that staff at the Dublin City Mortuary, Cork University Hospital and Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan have refused to work with Dr Jaber over disagreements dating back three years.
In Cork University Hospital, the mortuary services manager Dan Collins complained about Dr Jaber to Dr Marie Cassidy in August 2010 and informed her that his staff would not work with him. That complaint is understood to relate to what has been described as ‘an unpleasant event’ that took place the previous month.
The MoS also confirmed another complaint was made against Dr Jaber in Navan Hospital in 2010. The complaint is believed to have related to Dr Jaber’s behaviour towards colleagues.
Complaints about Dr Jaber were first brought to the attention of the Department of Justice in December 2010 when Carl Lyon, a senior pathology technician at Dublin’s City Morgue, wrote to Dublin Coroner Brian Farrell. ‘I wish to inform you that… I am no longer willing to assist Dr Khalid Jaber, Assistant State Pathologist, with autopsies arising at Dublin City Mortuary with immediate effect,’ Mr Lyons wrote.
It is understood that Dr Jaber denied any wrongdoing and made counter claims to the Department of Justice. But the dispute meant that bodies sent for postmortem at those hospitals had to be moved to other institutions when he was the on-call pathologist.
The case of dismembered drug dealer Christopher Gaffney, whose body parts were found in a field in Meath last month, once again highlighted the bizarre stand-off.
Dr Jaber was on duty when Gaffney’s severed arm was found in woods near Clonee, Co. Meath.
The arm was dispatched to the mortuary at Navan but when gardaà realised Dr Jaber was rostered for duty that week they were forced to send the arm to Blanchardstown Hospital to let him perform his examination there. The rest of Gaffney’s body parts followed as they were found.
Earlier this year, Dr Jaber made a failed bid to leave Ireland for a top job in the US city of El Paso, Texas.
Dr Jaber was selected as the chief medical examiner in the city located on the Mexican border. But the offer of the job, which pays an annual salary in the region of $250,000 (€187,000), was withdrawn in June, with officials refusing to publicly state a reason. It is believed that the fact that Dr Jaber is not a US citizen, disqualified him from the job.
Controversy also followed Dr Jaber in his previous career as a histopathologist specialising in the breast, at Dorset County Hospital. In 2005, a hearing of the General Medical Council in London heard that Dr Jaber had informed on a female colleague whom he suggested had misdiagnosed a woman with breast cancer. The woman subsequently went on to have a mastectomy. However his colleague was eventually cleared of any misconduct.
The MoS called to Dr Jaber’s North Dublin home and spoke with his daughter, who promised to pass a message to her father. No response was received from Dr Jaber.
The MoS also attempted to contact State Pathologist Marie Cassidy at her Dublin home yesterday afternoon, where nobody answered the door.
