A BOOK written by controversial North-East GP Dr Dave Moor and published a year after his death details the harrowing moral dilemma he faced.

The paperback - Allowing Dignity in Death - charts the controversial euthanasia trial and its traumatic effect on Newcastle family doctor Dr Moor and his family.

Friends say Dr Moor never really recovered from the stress of the court case that dominated the headlines in 1999.

He sparked a nationwide euthanasia debate when he was cleared of the mercy killing of an elderly cancer patient and received support from hundreds of patients, colleagues and friends after his arrest.

He was acquitted of murdering 85-year-old George Liddell by administering a lethal injection, following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, in May 1999.

But the trial took a heavy toll on the father-of-two and he died of a suspected heart attack last October, aged 53.

The hard-hitting paperback describes the fateful night Dr Moor administered Mr Liddell, who was terminally ill, with pain killing injections.

It reads: "He was obviously not going to last long. I sat on his bed with my hand on his knee and asked him what he wanted me to do.

"He smiled briefly before looking me in the eye and replying 'just get rid of the pain'. I promised that I would."

His widow, Sylvia, 56, says she hopes his book will finally put his side of the story across - even if it is from beyond the grave.

Speaking from her new home in Matfen, near Hexham in Northumberland, she said: "It records the case itself and the terrible, unbearable two years that led up to my husband's acquittal.

"It was quite an historic case so we feel it should be recorded for posterity.

"I imagine the book will be of great interest to his patients and the 22,000 people who signed a petition of support for him at the time."

Dr Moor, who ran a one-man surgery in Fenham, Newcastle, stopped practising when he was charged in 1997 and formally retired a year later.

The outspoken GP courted the media throughout his medical career and famously campaigned for one patient, model Fiona McAndrew, to have a breast implant on the NHS.

The book is published privately by Arrow Press, which is run by family friend and supporter, Dr Michael Irwin, and is available on a limited release for £10.