Accused doctor 'a caring physician', court is told

A cancer expert said yesterday that Paschal Carmody struck him as “a caring physician who was interested in doing good for his…

A cancer expert said yesterday that Paschal Carmody struck him as “a caring physician who was interested in doing good for his patients”.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, UK-based consultant cancer surgeon Colin Hopper also said Dr Carmody “believed overall he was doing patients good” and believed in the efficacy of the cancer treatments provided at his clinic in Killaloe, Co Clare.

In the case, Dr Carmody (62) of Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, denies defrauding relatives of two terminally ill cancer patients.

Mr Hopper was the final prosecution witness in the trial and told the jury that he went to Dr Carmody’s East Clinic in Killaloe in 2003 to examine, on behalf of the authorities, the cancer treatments offered to patients there.

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A report by Mr Hopper found that it was “miraculous” that a cancer patient of Dr Carmody’s was alive in 2003.

Mr Hopper compiled a report on three of Dr Carmody’s cancer patients.

In relation to Mark Hadden, he wrote: “That he is still alive so long after his diagnosis is miraculous and suggests that at least some of these alternative treatments have had a beneficial effect.”

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times