A NORTH-EAST nurse has admitted giving a schoolgirl a contraceptive jab in a burger bar toilet.

Other youngsters have been given morning-after pills outside school gates and sexual health advice in McDonald's, as health workers in Gateshead battle to combat teenage pregnancies, it has been revealed.

But the incidents were branded "totally unacceptable" by pro-life charity Life.

Speaking at a conference in Belfast, Nurse Angela Star, who earlier this year was named sexual health nurse of the year by the National Association of Nurses for Contraception and Sexual Health, revealed details of her fight to combat unwanted pregnancies.

The 37-year-old specialist nurse for teenage pregnancy, who works for Gateshead Primary Care Trust, said her caseload involved girls as young as 13 and many could not even remember having had sex.

She told the conference she had stood at school gates with a glass of water to give a girl emergency contraception and had given another teenager the jab at the McDonald's toilet.

A trust spokeswoman said: "Gateshead Primary Care Trust has a duty and a responsibility to give contraceptive advice to young people.

"Our specialist nurse for teenage pregnancy has a specific role to play in giving advice to under-19s by meeting them where they feel most comfortable, following established health protocols."

The North-East has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in England.

In February, figures showed that the number of conceptions among North-East under-18s fell by 4.7 per cent between 1998 and 2003, compared with a nationwide decline of 4.4 per cent.

But Rachel Heath, director of education at Life, said yesterday: "This must cause huge concern among parents. I would hope that the health trust will conduct a thorough investigation and that this nurse will be disciplined."

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said today: "It is completely inappropriate that we were not approached or consulted."