http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0129/woods.html

RTE Interactive News
January 29, 2002

Medical Council censures Dr Woods

The Irish Medical Council has censured Dr Moira Woods for professional misconduct, and set a series of conditions on her registration. The council met today to discuss what sanctions to impose on the doctor and social campaigner, for her handling of some cases of alleged child abuse in the 1980s.

In a statement tonight the Medical Council said Dr Woods had been found guilty of professional misconduct in respect of the 13 of 55 allegations. The council has decided she should be censured and her registration should be subject to a series of conditions.

Each family involved in the inquiry will receive an individualised report dealing with the section of the inquiry in which its complaints were considered. The President of the Medical Council, Professor Gerard Bury, said individualised reports would be given to the families within the coming week.

The Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council began its hearings in 1999, after lengthy High Court proceedings, which ruled the hearings should be held in private. The High Court said that the report of the Council's findings should be published.

In a statement, released through a public relations company, Dr Woods said she was disappointed by the findings of professional misconduct. She said she was proud of her work in the sexual assault unit of the Rotunda in 1980s, and her work was motivated and carried out with the best interests of the children in mind.

As the first director of the unit, it was a pioneering facility in the diagnosis and understanding of sexual abuse. She says she is now considering her position