Former deputy State pathologist found guilty of professional misconduct

Khalid Jaber served as deputy State pathologist between 2009 and 2013, when he resigned in controversial circumstances

Khalid Jaber served as deputy State pathologist between 2009 and 2013, when he resigned in controversial circumstances. Picture: Collins Courts

A former deputy State pathologist has been found guilty of professional misconduct over “major errors” in his postmortem findings in two cases which could have resulted in people being wrongfully acquitted or convicted of murder.

A fitness-to-practise committee of the Medical Council has ruled three allegations of both professional misconduct and poor professional performance made against Khalid Jaber were proven following a medical inquiry which was held over six days between October 2024 and January 2025.

Dr Jaber served as deputy State pathologist between 2009 and 2013, when he resigned in controversial circumstances amid reports of major disagreements with the then chief State pathologist Marie Cassidy.

He claimed complaints to the Medical Council about his work on two murder cases over a decade ago were “malicious” and “racially motivated” and questioned the qualifications of his former colleagues.

However, the inquiry heard Dr Jaber, 66, who is now based in the Middle East, has had little engagement with the Medical Council since 2018.

At the outset of the case, the inquiry’s chairperson, Mary O’Sullivan, noted the pathologist had “deliberately and voluntarily” absented himself from the proceedings.

However, correspondence opened at the inquiry showed Dr Jaber harboured resentment towards his former colleagues in the Office of the State Pathologist, branding some of them as “professional scums” over their questioning of his work.

In the same letter, he also described them as “unqualified”, “dysfunctional,” “corrupt” and “professionally bankrupt”. In other correspondence, Dr Jaber also lashed out at the Medical Council and accused the regulatory body of being “inept”, “despicable”, and “retarded”.

Allegations

The allegations against Dr Jaber relate to postmortem findings and related evidence the Saudi-born pathologist gave to two cases before the Central Criminal Court — one of which collapsed and the other where a murder conviction was quashed both due to the pathologist’s testimony.

The inquiry arose following a complaint to the Medical Council in August 2015 by the then deputy State pathologist Michael Curtis, above, who expressed concern about Dr Jaber’s 'unreasonable and, at times, bizarre behaviour'. File picture: Collins Courts

The inquiry arose following a complaint to the Medical Council in August 2015 by the then deputy State pathologist Michael Curtis, who expressed concern about Dr Jaber’s “unreasonable and, at times, bizarre behaviour”. 

Dr Curtis also revealed there were “grave concerns regarding his professional competence”. Similar concerns were reported to Prof Cassidy as well as the DPP and the Department of Justice.

In evidence to the inquiry, Dr Curtis said he would be concerned about Dr Jaber’s evidence being given to an Irish court but such concern would be even more acute knowing he was now working in a jurisdiction where capital punishment was practised.

The pathologist was accused of giving evidence in the trial of Michael Furlong for the murder of his friend, Patrick Connors, 37, in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in April 2011 that blunt force trauma which caused fractures of the deceased’s jaw had contributed to his death.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Prof O’Sullivan said the committee was satisfied there was no pathological evidence to justify such a finding.

She pointed out Dr Jaber was also aware of a report by consultant neuropathologist Michael Farrell, which contradicted his own opinion and whose finding he should have accepted.

The pathologist was also found to have failed to appreciate that hypothermia might have been a contributory factor in Mr Connors’ death.

The committee observed Dr Jaber’s evidence at the trial was “very difficult to understand and, to an extent, tortuous”. 

It ruled the cumulative effect of the various allegations against Dr Jaber in the case represented a breach of his duties and a serious falling short of the standards that could reasonably be expected of a pathologist giving evidence on behalf of the State in a criminal case.

Prof O’Sullivan noted judges and juries rely on the evidence of pathologists in such murder cases “where the stakes could not be higher”. The trial of Mr Furlong collapsed in 2013 following the dramatic intervention of Prof Cassidy, when she notified the DPP of her concerns about Dr Jaber’s evidence and the fact his postmortem report in the case had not been peer-reviewed.

The High Court subsequently prohibited the holding of a retrial.

Dr Jaber served as deputy State pathologist between 2009 and 2013, when he resigned in controversial circumstances amid reports of major disagreements with the then chief State pathologist Marie Cassidy.

An expert witness, Dr William Lawler, a former UK Home Office pathologist, told the inquiry Dr Jaber’s evidence in the original trial of Michael Furlong was “dangerous in the extreme” because of its potential to cause a miscarriage of justice.

Limerick death

Separately, the fitness-to-practise committee found there was no pathological evidence to justify Dr Jaber’s finding in a postmortem report that the death of Francis Greene, 48, at Steamboat Quay in Limerick in November 2009 was due to asphyxia and the related evidence he subsequently provided in court.

The victim’s badly decomposed body had been immersed in water for two months before being discovered.

Gardaí believed Mr Greene had been forced into the River Shannon and died by drowning but Dr Jaber’s evidence suggested he had been strangled before he ended up in the water.

Kevin Coughlan of Avondale Drive, Greystones, Limerick, had his conviction for the murder of Mr Greene quashed by the Court of Appeal in June 2015.

However, he was subsequently convicted of Mr Greene’s manslaughter at a retrial and sentenced to eight years in prison.

The fitness-to-practise committee said it was “totally inappropriate and unjustifiable” for Dr Jaber to have made such “a definitive and unequivocal” finding about the cause of death in “the complete absence” of any supporting evidence.

It also ruled he had failed to demonstrate he appreciated the fundamental difference between bite marks and tooth indentations as well as incorrectly equating hanging with strangulation in his evidence.

Counsel for the Medical Council, Ronan Kennedy SC, said a written submission would be made to the committee on a recommended sanction to apply to Dr Jaber.

While some matters could be addressed by a requirement to undergo an extensive period of retraining and the attachment of certain conditions to his continuing practice, Mr Kennedy said there were “serious reservations” that Dr Jaber would comply with them.

The fitness-to-practise committee will convey its recommendations on sanction, which will not be made public, to the Medical Council in due course after Dr Jaber is also given an opportunity to make a submission.