VICTIMS of disgraced surgeon Richard Neale have lost their legal battle for a public inquiry into the scandal.

A High Court judge this morning upheld Health Secretary Alan Milburn's decisions not to allow the press and public to attend formal investigations into how it was that so many women came to suffer at the hands of the gynaecologist.

The ruling marked defeat for Sheila Wright-Hogeland, 50, from Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire who led the campaign for public hearings into the affair.

Mr Justice Scott Baker, sitting in London, rejected their claim that the Health Secretary's refusal to order public inquiries was "irrational" and in breach of human rights laws.

He also refused leave to appeal.

The judge said: "The Secretary of State had to balance up the various considerations for public versus private.

"On many points there were and are differing opinions, each supported by respectable arguments."