Child abuse doctor suspended

Dr Camille San Lazaro was awarded the OBE in 1999

A paediatrician at the centre of a bungled inquiry into allegations of child abuse has been suspended from both her consultant and teaching posts.

Dr Camille San Lazaro, a child abuse expert, will also be investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC).

Her evidence was used in a report commissioned by Newcastle City Council into allegations of abuse at a nursery school in the city.

The report, entitled Abuse in Early Years wrongly accused nursery nurses Christopher Lillie and Dawn Reed of child abuse, four years after the pair had been acquitted of sexual offences at the direction of a judge at Newcastle Crown Court.

The nursery nurses were cleared of wrongdoing

The pair were each awarded £200,000 in libel damages after suing the four authors of the report at the High Court in July.

Mr Justice Eady, who presided over the hearing, heavily criticised the evidence of Dr San Lazaro on which the 1998 report was partly based.

He said Ms Reed and Mr Lillie should be able to live their lives "untouched by the stigma of child abuse".

Dr San Lazaro, a consultant paediatrician at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and a senior lecturer at Newcastle University, has been suspended as the GMC investigates.

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust said it had suspended her pending a review of her practices.

The official complaint to the GMC came from the solicitor representing Ms Reed and Mr Lillie.