CPS investigates 'assault' by paediatrician Southall
Michele Paduano
BBC West Midlands health correspondent
Ben Hollisey Mclean has coordination and speech problems
The Crown Prosecution Service is considering an alleged assault on a boy of five involving a paediatrician who until recently was struck off.
Dr David Southall was interviewed by South Wales Police about experiments that took place at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) 19 years ago.
Ben Hollisey Mclean's parents claim he was brain damaged during a sleep study involving oxygen deprivation.
Dr Southall denied any wrongdoing, saying he had lost faith in the system.
During the experiments at UHW in Cardiff, children were given short bursts of reduced oxygen or increased carbon dioxide.
Ben, now 24, has difficulty with coordination and weak speech. He still lives with his parents in Swansea.
South Wales Police confirmed just after Easter that a file had been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS received a large file which was logged in late April.
"It's in the system and people are looking at it," a spokesman said.
Dr Southall, from Staffordshire, confirmed that he had been interviewed last October by police and that he was expecting a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service within the next couple of weeks.
David Southall was struck off by the GMC in 2007 but reinstated this month
He said a large number of people had been interviewed. He denied any wrong
doing.
"It's of serious concern to me," he said. "After what has happened to me I have lost a lot of faith in the justice system.
"It's the last case, but I am sure others will come out of the woodwork. These allegations have been hanging around for ten years, but I was only interviewed last October."
Davina Hollisey Mclean, Ben's mother, was not available for comment.
The controversial doctor was reinstated earlier this month as a paediatrician following a legal challenge after being struck off by the General Medical Council in 2007.
The GMC panel took action after it accepted that he had accused a mother, Mandy Morris, of murdering her 10-year-old son, Lee.
The appeal judges found that the GMC had failed to give adequate reasons.
The case has been sent back to the General Medical Council by the Appeal Court. Dr Southall was also found to have kept special case files on individual patients which contained material which was not in their NHS notes.
Although Dr Southall says that he has no intention of practising as a doctor in the UK, he does want to return to child protection work.
"If I give up now, these people will have won. Nobody wants to give evidence on behalf of the police and social services.
"I have had 12 years of trauma, and they really will have won if I do not go back to child protection work," he said.
