An English family doctor, Dr Dave Moor, spoke yesterday of his relief after being acquitted of murdering a dying patient, in a landmark case highlighting the issue of euthanasia.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court took just 69 minutes to find Dr Moor (52) not guilty of murdering a retired ambulance driver, George Liddell.
The doctor had admitted helping hundreds of patients to die "pain-free deaths", but denied deliberately injecting the pensioner with a lethal dose of diamorphine.
During the 18-day trial, Dr Moor told how he gave Mr Liddell (85) the drug as he lay crying in agony from terminal cancer.
The case is thought to be the first of its kind to be brought and has highlighted the controversial debate over euthanasia.
Mr Liddell died on July 19th, 1997, but Dr Moor was only charged a year later after telling a journalist how he had helped the man to die.
He later insisted he had acted only to relieve Mr Liddell's suffering and had the backing of the dead man's family as well as hundreds of patients from his innercity practice.
Dr Moor, his wife, Sylvia, and their children and supporters celebrated last night after he walked free from court. He insisted doctors had the right to give pain-relieving medication to terminally-ill patients even if the doses could cause a patient to die.
But the British Medical Association and anti-euthanasia campaigners warned the case did not give doctors the "green light" to help patients die.
Detectives and the Crown Prosecution Service defended their decision to bring charges, saying the concept of mercy killing was meaningless in law.
The trial judge also accused the GP, from Stamfordham, Northumberland, of foolishness in telling journalists and an NHS executive how he had helped more than 300 people to die.
Mr Justice Hooper awarded the defence team two-thirds of the costs, reserving the full amount and saying: "He brought this prosecution upon himself to this extent; not only did he make his very silly remarks to the press, but then he lied both to the National Health Service, then to the police."
The General Medical Council said it planned no action unless it received a complaint against the GP and Dr Moor was free to continue practising at his surgery in Fenham. The Medical Defence Union warned GPs that his acquittal did not give a green light to euthanasia.
The broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy, a supporter of the campaign to legalise euthanasia, said: "Dr Moor should never have been tried - the whole trial was a complete waste of time and money. He was only doing what hundreds and hundreds of doctors do in this country every year. The sooner the law is changed to allow doctors to legally help people on their way, the better."
However, Northumbria Police said they had been duty bound to bring charges.
Detective Superintendent Colin Dobson said: "To a police officer and the Criminal Justice system the terms mercy killing and euthanasia are meaningless."