A PSYCHIATRIST told a High Court libel trial that anxiety about being separated from a parent was the more likely reason for many behaviours exhibited by some children from a North-East nursery.

Dr Hamish Clark Cameron said his opinion was 90:10 in favour of the "commonplace explanations" for wetting, occasional soiling, regressed and quieter behaviour, and "the production of florid stories under anxious parental questioning some months later".

Dr Cameron, an honorary consultant and senior lecturer to St George's Hospital and its London medical school, was giving evidence on behalf of former nursery workers Christopher Lillie, 37, and Dawn Reed, 31.

They are suing Newcastle City Council and the four-member team it commissioned to investigate complaints about Shieldfield nursery. In its 1998 report, the team concluded the pair abused children from Shieldfield.

Four years earlier they were acquitted of indecently assaulting children from the nursery.

Dr Cameron was asked to comment on behavioural symptoms shown in seven Shieldfield children.

The Shieldfield behaviours included nightmares and disturbed sleep, regressive toileting, fear of dogs and clowns, sexual posturing or playing and becoming upset when taken to certain places.

"The behaviours and case histories in each of the seven children point to these children being emotionally stressed," he said.

"Separation anxiety and related unease are the principal stresses.

Dr Cameron said using childhood behaviours as indirect proof of child sexual abuse was not sufficient.

"The behaviours shown by the children at Shieldfield nursery are common in two to four years olds, and are unremarkable to those who work with pre-school children."

The hearing is continuing.