Douthwaite was Britain's foremost expert on dangerous drugs, and was instrumental in dissuading the Home Office from banning heroin for medical use.
[7] Leading defence counsel, Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence also secured an admission from Dr Douthwaite that, in his examination-in-chief, his evidence on possible withdrawal symptoms was in response to instances selected by the Attorney-General that might not have been representative.
Douthwaite also accepted that it was essential to his theory of an intentional killing that Adams knew that opiates would accumulate in the body of an elderly immobile patient.
[7] Douthwaite was also criticised by Lawrence for what seemed to be a change in his hypothesis half-way through the trial, when he selected a different date for when Adams had begun his attempt to kill Morrell.
Lawrence put it to him thus: "The truth of all this matter is this, Dr Douthwaite, that you first of all gave evidence on one basis to support a charge of murder and then thought of something else after you had started?
Douthwaite had previously been greatly respected within the profession, but his involvement is widely considered to have cost him the presidency of the Royal College of Physicians.
[2][3][5] As Devlin later wrote in his account of the trial, the case was "a very important one for the medical profession, which was naturally worried by the thought that the prescription of drugs might lead to a charge of murder".
[4] Adams was only ever convicted on 13 counts of prescription fraud, lying on cremation forms, obstructing a police search and failing to keep a dangerous drugs register.