Shamed TV star Dr Raj Persaud blames 'carelessness and deadline pressure' for plagiarism in his books

Celebrity psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud yesterday blamed carelessness and his heavy workload after he was caught passing other experts' work off as his own.

The one-time regular on ITV's This Morning with Richard and Judy said he regretted what he had done, but insisted he had made an honest mistake and had not deliberately attempted to con anybody.

Dr Persaud, who has published several books as well as presenting the Radio 4 programme All In The Mind, is facing a disciplinary panel for repeatedly plagiarising leading academics.

Yesterday one of them told the General Medical Council hearing Dr Persaud was guilty of either 'wilful cheating' or was just 'extremely stupid' for copying chunks of his work.

However the man who remains Britain's best-known psychiatrist said he had simply become  'confused' about how to acknowledge that he was quoting somebody else in the face of deadlines from his many media commitments.

Dr Persaud, a consultant psychiatrist for the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, has admitted plagiarising four academic papers for his book "From the Edge of the Couch", published in 2003.

Giving evidence yesterday he said he had made "serious errors" in lifting passages from them so they read as if they were his own work - something the hearing has been told 'any competent undergraduate' would know was wrong.

He told the panel he had 'not grasped' the importance of putting other writers' contributions in quotation marks.

Recalling how he often stayed up late at night writing articles for newspapers and magazines, Dr Persaud added: 'Looking back I did way too much and as a result became overstressed.'

But he went on: 'That I was careless and under pressure of deadlines doesn't excuse it, and I deeply regret what is clearly an incorrect piece of writing.'

Since the controversy blew up he said he had 'drawn back from my media commitments and tried to focus even more on the clinical side'.

Dr Persaud denies dishonesty and misconduct, saying all the academics were properly referenced elsewhere in his book and pointing out that he even sent copies to some of them.

Among those who received a copy was Richard Bentall, then professor of clinical psychology at Manchester University.

He told the hearing he had been 'astonished and flabbergasted' when it was pointed out that lengthy passages of a paper he had co-written had been reproduced as if they were Dr Persaud's own words.

'It's simply dishonest to present other people's hard work as one's own," Professor Bentall added.

'Part of my astonishment was to do with the fact that I knew that anyone who is any kind of academic should just know that it's a bad thing to do.

'It seemed to be fairly obvious that this would be found out by somebody.

'I find it hard to believe that somebody with the reputation of Dr Persaud would deliberately to something so obviously wrong, so at times I've thought it's a matter of wilful cheating and at others that he was extremely stupid.

'But it still baffles me to this day, the motive.'

If found guilty of misconduct, Dr Persaud - who also admits plagiarism in relation to five articles for medical journals and newspapers - could potentially be struck off the medical register.

The fitness to practise hearing, being held in Manchester, continues.