Two in court on embryo charges

An embryologist and a hospital consultant have appeared in court charged in connection with offences involving human embryo work.

One of the men faces six charges of keeping an embryo without a licence, while the other has been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm to four women.

Embryologist Paul Fielding, from Hampshire, appeared before Southampton magistrates on Thursday to face the assault charges and also seven counts of false accounting and eight of obtaining money by deception.

Consultant Robert Bates also appeared at the court, charged with the embryo offences.

Unconditional bail

Mr Bates, 46, from Church Road, Tadley, Basingstoke and Mr Fielding, 43, from Station Road, Whitchurch, are alleged to have committed the offences while working at a hospital and a private clinic.

Both men appeared separately in the dock and were given unconditional bail.

They will appear again before magistrates on 22 February.

The charges relating to Mr Bates are believed to be the first time legal proceedings have been taken under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.

They follow a police investigation into alleged irregularities in the storage of cryo-preserved genetic material at the Hampshire Clinic and the North Hampshire Hospital Fertility Centre, which are both in Basingstoke.