Controversial paediatrician Dr David Southall has been condemned by the High Court for his "truly shocking" and unjustified accusations that a mother drugged and murdered her son.
A judge said of the doctor "of international renown": "He was speculating on non-medical matters in an offensive manner entirely inconsistent with the status of an independent expert."
The scathing criticism came as Mr Justice Blake, sitting in London, upheld a decision of the General Medical Council's (GMC) fitness to practise panel to strike Dr Southall off the medical register for serious professional misconduct.
The panel found in December 2007 that the doctor's actions added to the distress of the mother - Mrs M, from Shropshire - whose 10-year-old boy hanged himself in 1996. It accused him of having a "deep-seated attitudinal problem".
Dr Southall made the murder accusations after being asked by a county council to provide an independent expert report related to the safety of Mrs M's surviving son.
Backing the panel's ruling, the judge said it was "truly shocking" that Dr Southall's conduct with respect to Mrs M should have occurred.
The judge added: "The unjustified accusation of murder... was an abuse of the role of consultant and expert instructed in ongoing litigation."
His lawyers argued at the High Court that the panel failed to give any or adequate weight to inconsistencies in Mrs M's evidence, and to the totality of evidence from witnesses, including social workers.
They said it was Dr Southall's concern that the panel "did not understand, certainly in its final form, what child protection involved and the part played by doctors like him".
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The court's ruling against him triggered a warning from Professionals Against Child Abuse (PACA) that it could have "further serious and negative effects" on the willingness of doctors to engage in child protection work.
