HE WAS once the ubiquitous psychiatrist who diagnosed viewers' faults from the comfort of the television sofa. But yesterday Dr Raj Persaud, a regular guest on programmes such as This Morning and Richard and Judy, was suspended from practice for three months by the General Medical Council.
A GMC panel had ruled Persaud had brought the profession into disrepute after passing off other scholars' work as his own in a book and several articles. The panel, sitting in Manchester, decided yesterday that his actions meant his fitness to p
ractise was "impaired" and punished him by suspending his licence.
The doctor, famed for his appearances on television chat shows as well as on BBC Radio 4's All In The Mind programme, admitted plagiarising the work of other experts. However, he had denied that his actions were dishonest and liable to bring his profession into disrepute.
Persaud was accused of plagiarising material for his book following a newspaper investigation in 2006.
The book was an anthology of the "100 most sick people in the history of psychiatry" and was intended to revive an interest in psychiatric patients' case histories. Yet large sections of prose, apparently written by Persaud, were actually the work of other authors and he had failed to attribute what were described as "stolen words". Persaud said that at the time he had believed that he had acknowledged other authors' work sufficiently. He obtained permission to quote them in his book and included their names in its acknowledgements section.
He admitted he made "some serious errors" and said he "deeply regretted" not using quotation marks to denote copied work in his book. Persaud, who is a visiting Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "It wasn't my intention to pass off other people's work as mine."
During the four-day hearing, statements of support were read out from the journalist Martin Bashir, as well as Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. However, they failed to sway the panel.
Yesterday, Dr Anthony Morgan, the chairman of the Fitness to Practise Panel, said: "Doctors occupy a position of privilege and trust in society and are expected to act with integrity and to uphold proper standards of conduct.
"Your conduct has fallen below the standards of behaviour that the public is entitled to expect from doctors and undermines the public confidence in the profession.
"The panel has determined that a three-month period of suspension is sufficient to send out a signal to you, the profession and the public that plagiarism is unacceptable behaviour."
PROFILEDR RAJ Persaud, 45, is a clever man who was stupid. He has nine degrees, including a first-class degree in psychology and a masters in statistics, and was made a visiting Gresham professor for public understanding of psychiatry and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Married to an eye surgeon and with two children, Dr Persaud earned a reputation for saying yes to every media invitation, and has published more than 100 papers for journals and five books, which have sold 143,181 copies according to Nielsen BookScan. He described the day the controversy broke as "the worst day of my life".
The full article contains 543 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
