Settlement for bogus abuse woman

Katrina kept a diary of the false claims during treatment

A woman who falsely accused her father of rape after undergoing a discredited form of therapy has received an out-of-court settlement.

Katrina Fairlie, 37, launched a claim seeking damages from NHS Tayside.

She claimed the "recovered memory" treatment triggered accusations which had ruined her and her family's lives.

The health board said the settlement, reported to be £20,000, had been made on economic grounds and without admission of liability.

Katrina was undergoing recovered memory therapy in a psychiatric hospital in Perth when she made a series of allegations of sexual abuse by her father, former SNP deputy leader Jim Fairlie.

Duty of care

She later said those claims were completely untrue and a police investigation found there was no evidence of abuse.

Mr Fairlie had previously sued Perth and Kinross Healthcare NHS Trust, now part of NHS Tayside, for £250,000 in compensation.

However, a judge dismissed the action after ruling that the trust did not owe a duty of care to Mr Fairlie as a relative of a patient.

Ms Fairlie brought her own action against NHS Tayside and a hearing was scheduled in Edinburgh.

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: "We can confirm an out-of-court settlement was reached with Ms Fairlie without any admission of liability on the part of NHS Tayside or its predecessor authorities.

"The decision had been made purely on economic grounds."