TV psychiatrist Raj Persaud suspended

Psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr Raj Persaud was suspended for three months after being found unfit to practice for plagiarising other people's work, the medical watchdog said on Friday.

The celebrity psychiatrist was suspended after his conduct was found to be "inappropriate, misleading, dishonest and liable to bring the profession into disrepute", the General Medical Council said.

Persaud, the former presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme "All in the Mind", said in a statement he was "saddened" by the GMC panel's findings and decision.

During the disciplinary hearing in Manchester this week he had admitted copying pieces from four research papers for his 2003 book "From the Edge of the Couch".

He had also admitted copying passages from two other academic pieces of work in a series of newspaper articles and journals.

Persaud, who was also resident psychiatrist on the daytime TV show "This Morning" and had written for the Daily Telegraph and the Independent newspapers, had denied dishonesty.

He had said he was in a confused mental state at the time of writing the work because of the pressure of juggling his work for the media and the National Health Service.

The panel acknowledged in its findings that Persaud had shown regret and taken remedial action, making it highly unlikely he would ever repeat his actions.

He had cut down on his media and journalistic projects and was more cautious about taking on extra work, it added.

"It has had regard to the fact that there has been no patient harm, that your plagiarism was not financially motivated, that it did not relate to research fraud and that there are measures in place to avoid repetition," the panel said.

"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."

Persaud said in a statement: "I accept that my use of the work of some authors lacked adequate acknowledgement. I have apologised repeatedly for this during the hearing, and I apologise for this now.

"I am saddened that this occurred while I was seeking to promote the work of academics to the wider public."

Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals and Gresham professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry.

In 2002, he was voted one of the top 10 psychiatrists in the UK by a survey of the Institute of Psychiatry and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.