Disgraced doctor is dead, gardai insist

Gardai insist disgraced gynaecologist Rodney Ledward is dead despite claims he has faked his own death to escape sex assault accusations.

They have been looking into the circumstances surrounding Ledward's death from cancer of the pancreas at Cork University Hospital in October 2000.

At the time, Ledward, 62, who had moved from Saltwood in Kent to Mallow near Cork, was being investigated by police over dozens of accusations of sexual assaults on women at Kent hospitals.

The allegations emerged after he was struck off the medical register for a series of medical blunders which left women patients maimed, scarred and emotionally damaged.

Since his death, there have been alleged sightings of him in Ireland and Spain. And there was a question mark over his death certificate.

But after speaking to medics at the hospital, and people who dealt with the body, police are convinced he is, in fact, dead.

Today, Superintendent Gerald Dillane at Mallow garda station, said: "It might make a good fairy tale but as far as we are concerned, we think he is dead.

"From talking to people at the hospital, I honestly think it would be a massive coup because for one thing, the person was in hospital for eight days. He was familiar to them."

He also reckoned the kind of illness he had and the treatment he received would be very difficult to fake. He added: "The chief administrator registered the death which is normal practice. The undertakers were reputable. The identification seems to be ok."

Ledward's death came two years after he was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council for serious professional misconduct relating to 13 botched operations at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the private St Saviour's Hospital in Hythe between 1989 and 1996.