THE approach by an expert who reported seeing sexualised behaviour in nursery children suspected of being abused was "about as scientific as reading tea leaves", a barrister said yesterday.
Adrienne Page, for former nursery workers Christopher Lillie and Dawn Reed, was cross-examining Professor William Friedrich in a long-running libel case in London's High Court.
Prof Friedrich, who concluded children at Newcastle's Shieldfield nursery were very likely to have been sexually abused by the two workers, has watched video interviews with the children.
In a report, he refers to various gestures and movements by children which he said was sexualised behaviour.
Prof Freidrich, a consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, was being cross-examined at the libel action brought by Mr Lillie, 37, and Ms 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 Mr Lillie and Ms Reed had sexually, physically and emotionally abused children from Shieldfield.
Four years earlier they had been acquitted of indecently assaulting children from the nursery.
The hearing continues
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