One of Australia’s best-known lawyers, former ACT attorney-general Bernard Collaery, has warned that wrongful shaken baby cases are damaging the reputation of the justice system and should prompt reform of Australia’s forensic medical agencies.

Collaery, a criminal defence lawyer who took on the federal government in the Witness K case, agrees with retired forensic pathologist Stephen Cordner that Australia must conduct an inquiry into the science underpinning the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.

Shaken baby syndrome is a medical diagnosis that has become highly controversial overseas. Over the past four weeks, this masthead and its podcast Diagnosing Murder have told a number of emotional stories about children who have had apparent medical episodes misdiagnosed as abuse.

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