The paediatrician David Southall has lost his legal challenge to a decision to strike him off the UK medical register for accusing a mother without justification of drugging and murdering her 10 year old son.

At the High Court in London Mr Justice Blake said that Dr Southall’s conduct was “truly shocking” and “an abuse of the role of consultant and expert instructed in ongoing litigation.”

Dr Southall was appealing against a finding of serious professional misconduct by a General Medical Council fitness to practise panel and an order striking him off the register in December 2007 (BMJ 2007;335:1174, doi:10.1136/bmj.39420.690845.DB).

Described by the judge as “a consultant paediatrician of national and international renown,” Dr Southall was a leading specialist in the field of child protection in the 1980s and 1990s. But he faced a barrage of complaints by parents, who accused him of overzealousness. …