A BARRISTER who represented disgraced surgeon Richard Neale could face further disciplinary action over his conduct, it emerged on Friday.

Former patients of the shamed North Yorkshire gynaecologist had written to the Bar Council to allege that Malcolm Fortune was overly aggressive during his cross-examination of witnesses at a high-profile General Medical Council (GMC) hearing last year.

But they were dismayed when the professional conduct and complaints committee (PCC) only gave the barrister a ticking off.

Now though, the Legal Ombudsman has intervened and told the Bar Council to reconsider the complaints made by the Neale victims' campaign group.

A report from Ombudsman Ann Abraham, seen by The Northern Echo, supports the complaints made by campaigner Graham Maloney and former patient Sheila Wright-Hogeland, who sat through two-and-a-half days of rigorous cross-examination.

The PCC investigation claimed that none of the lawyers at the hearing had seen Mr Fortune's conduct as distressing to the witness.

But Mrs Abraham's report says: "Clearly the fact that the lawyers who attended the GMC hearing may have seen nothing untoward in Mr Fortune's cross-examination was far from being the whole story.

"From the papers available to the PCC, it was apparent that more than one of the lay people present had shared the view that Mr Maloney and Mrs Wright-Hogeland had taken of Mr Fortune's conduct."

Mr Maloney said last night: "Everyone has the right to be defended but not to that extent. It is a hostile arena when you are giving evidence to the GMC but it is not fair that spirited members of the public, who only went there so the truth could be known, had to sit there and take it."

He added that the Ombudsman's findings could be used in any forthcoming public inquiry into the Neale affair, in an effort to give witnesses at future GMC hearings more peace of mind.