A FATHER said yesterday his daughter's extreme behaviour led him to believe she had been molested by two nursery workers.

"Although my daughter has been unable to articulate all that happened to her, I believe that this is because she was terrorised by Christopher Lillie and Dawn Reed," he told the High Court.

But, under cross-examination, he agreed that before and after her time at Newcastle's Shieldfield nursery his daughter was seen by her GP for problems including lack of sleep, hyperactivity and urinary tract infections.

Sometime after she left Shieldfield, his daughter was diagnosed as having an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was put on medication.

The father of the girl was giving evidence at the libel action brought by Mr Lillie, 37, and Miss Reed, 31.

They are suing Newcastle City Council and the four-member review team which produced a 1998 report concluding that the pair had sexually, emotionally and physically abused children from the nursery. Four years earlier, they were acquitted of indecently assaulting children from Shieldfield.

The father told the court that after his daughter started at Shieldfield, her toilet training regressed and she had to go back into nappies. She also displayed extreme behaviour, including tantrums, scratching and biting herself, and being violent towards others.

Under cross-examination from the pair's barrister, Adrienne Page, the father said his daughter was medically examined three years after she left Shieldfield. He said the doctor told his wife there was a possibility she had been sexually abused.

Miss Page suggested the little girl had been in the care of two female nursery workers - not Mr Lillie or Miss Reed - to which the father replied he did not know.

He agreed that some of his daughter's behavioural problems had coincided with times when his wife had been ill.

The hearing is continuing.