Persaud suspended for three months

Raj Persaud had claimed that he failed to credit colleagues inadvertently

The psychiatrist and broadcaster Raj Persaud has been suspended from practising medicine for three months by the General Medical Council (GMC) after being found guilty of dishonestly plagiarising the work of colleagues in a manner that brought his profession into disrepute.

The decision made at the misconduct hearing of the GMC in Manchester will damage the celebrity psychiatrist's media career and in effect dock three months' salary.

Dr Persaud had claimed that he failed to credit colleagues inadvertently as he was in a "confused" state from the pressures of work, and that one incident was a "cutting and pasting error". He admitted to the hearing this week that his use of other people's work as his own was "inappropriate" and "misleading".

He said yesterday: "I have apologised repeatedly for this during the hearing, and I apologise for this now."

Dr Persaud, 45, a consultant psychiatrist and presenter of the Radio 4 show All in the Mind, has written for the Times Educational Supplement, the British Medical Journal and The Independent among other publications.