The GMC's Fitness to Practise Panel first met on 16 July 2007[69] to consider the cases of Wakefield, Professor John Angus Walker-Smith, and Professor Simon Harry Murch.[70] All faced charges of serious professional misconduct. The GMC examined, among other ethical points, whether Wakefield and his colleagues obtained the required approvals for the tests they performed on the children; the data-manipulation charges reported in the Times, which surfaced after the case was prepared, were not at question in the hearings.[71] The GMC stressed that it would not be assessing the validity of competing scientific theories on MMR and autism. The General Medical Council alleged that the trio acted unethically and dishonestly in preparing the research into the MMR vaccine.