A LEADING child abuse expert has admitted there was no basis to include claims in a report that children had been drugged as part of alleged sex abuse.

Consultant paediatrician Camille De San Lazaro was appearing yesterday at a hearing of the General Medical Council, in Manchester, to face a charge of serious professional misconduct, which she denies.

She was read testimony she made during an earlier legal hearing, in which she agreed she had added unsubstantiated allegations when writing a compensation claim form.

She had been working as a forensic paediatrician at the Lindisfarne Centre, in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, during the early 1990s and was involved in examining six children at the centre of child sex abuse claims at a nursery.

Two nursery nurses, Dawn Reed and Christopher Lillie, were charged with sex abuse following the inquiry, but later cleared. They subsequently brought libel proceedings and were each awarded £200,000 in damages.

Dr Lazaro, who received an OBE in 1999 for services in the care of sexually abused children, helped to prepare a report on behalf of the children's families, who were seeking compensation.

Under cross-examination in the libel trial, Dr Lazaro had admitted her accounts of abuse had been "overstated, exaggerated and emotive", the hearing was told.

Extracts were read from the transcripts of the libel hearing, when Dr Lazaro admitted she had included unsubstantiated allegations in her report.

She wrote that drugs had "almost certainly" been involved in abuse.

Jane Sullivan, prosecuting, read out the transcripts of Dr Lazaro's evidence.

She quoted Dr Lazaro's explanation of the comments, which said: ''I recognise that they have been emotive. They have been exaggerated and overstated in the past, but they are much more measured now.''

The hearing continues.