Two of the country's most senior obstetricians who exonerated the practice of a doctor who carried out 129 hysterectomies over a 25-year period were cleared today of professional misconduct.
The High Court quashed a decision by the Medical Council to uphold the decision of a fitness to practise inquiry, which found Prof Walter Prendiville, Dr John Murphy and a third medic had been negligent in clearing a colleague of any wrongdoing after reviewing nine of his caesarean hysterectomy cases.
Dr Michael Neary needlessly removed the wombs of expectant mothers during his career at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth.
An inquiry found the Dublin-based obstetricians had allowed Dr Neary to continue working in Drogheda in 1998 even after serious concerns had been raised about his surgical practice.
Earlier this year they were found guilty of the professional misconduct and their careers jeopardised.
But in a scathing 94 page judgment, Mr Justice Peter Kelly criticised the initial decision by the Fitness to Practise Committee, how its five members were on the Medical Council board that approved the decision, and the final outcome.
"I am quite satisfied that having regard to the passage of time since the events complained of, the number of years that disciplinary proceeding have been hanging over the applicants and the undoubted damage which has been done to them, it would be quite inequitable and unfair to remit the case," he said.