UK: Journalism academic castigates media over paedophile doctor

Niall Meehan

A week ago, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme in Northern Ireland, Spotlight, investigated a disgraced psychiatrist, Morris Fraser.

The Paedophile Doctor told how Fraser was allowed to continue working with children after being convicted in London in 1972 of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

He was allowed to remain in his post as a child psychiatrist at a Belfast hospital because the RUC (the Northern Ireland police force at the time) and the Metropolitan police failed to tell the hospital authorities.

The programme was prompted by the findings in a research paper, “Morris Fraser, child abuse, corruption and collusion in Britain & Northern Ireland”, written by a Dublin-based journalism academic, Niall Meehan.

He was, of course, gratified that Spotlight followed up on his paper and pleased that it highlighted important new information, notably the negligence of the General Medical Council (GMC) in its dealings with Fraser’s case.

But time limitations, the problem that always faces TV documentary makers, prevented the programme from touching on several institutional failings.  (more...)

Journalism academic castigates media over paedophile doctor

Related:

Submission to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Northern Ireland