DISGRACED surgeon Richard Neale has been arrested after a lengthy police investigation.

The former consultant gynaecologist who was struck off for a catalogue of errors that left some patients in agonising pain and unable to have children, was arrested and questioned by officers on Wednesday.

Mr Neale, a former gynaecologist at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, has been the subject of two police investigations.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "We can confirm that a 59-year-old man from the Boroughbridge area was arrested yesterday morning following a lengthy investigation into a number of alleged criminal offences.

"He was released on police bail pending further inquiries."

A number of serious allegations were made against Mr Neale by former patients after he was struck off the medical register for serious professional misconduct in 2000.

The first police investigation focused on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three of Mr Neale's former patients, as well as allegations of assault and deception.

That investigation ended in 2001 when the Crown Prosecution Service said there were no grounds to justify a prosecution.

Updated: 10:01 Friday, January 20, 2006