Doctor 'blamed woman for son death'

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The General Medical Council's fitness to practice panel in London has yet to decide whether he is guilty of serious professional misconduct which could lead to him being struck off.

He was found to have added to the distress of the mother - identified only as Mrs M - whose 10-year-old son hanged himself in June 1996.

Dr Southall made the claim in an interview with Mrs M about the safety of her surviving son, the panel was told. At the time he had been instructed by Shropshire County Council to provide an independent expert report to the court.

Panel chairman Dr Jacqueline Mitton told Dr Southall: "Although Mrs M was not your patient your action in accusing her of drugging and murdering Child M1 (her son) by hanging him was inappropriate, added to her distress and was in the circumstances an abuse of your professional position."

Dr Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2004 for accusing solicitor Sally Clark's husband of murdering their children.

Dr Southall had questioned Mrs M in an "accusatorial and intimidating manner" during the April 1998 interview where he wrongly claimed she had drugged and murdered her elder son by hanging, the panel found.

After getting advice from him, social workers took the younger boy - identified only as Child M2 - into care under an emergency protection order in January 1998. He had felt the boy was "at serious risk" from his mother.

Dr Southall worked as a consultant paediatrician at London's Royal Brompton Hospital from 1982 before moving to the same post at the North Staffordshire Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent in 1992.

This year-long hearing before the GMC relates to a range of allegations linked to six children between 1989 and 1998.