DETECTIVES have confirmed that the second investigation into disgraced surgeon Richard Neale is continuing as it reaches its first anniversary.

The inquiry, involving a six-strong team of detectives and support workers, was started in July last year.

It followed complaints by victims of the struck-off former surgeon, who worked at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, about the inadequacy of the first investigation.

Senior officers said the inquiry was ongoing and witnesses had been interviewed in North Yorkshire and other parts of the UK.

The first police inquiry into the former gynaecologist spent two years investigating allegations of wrong-doing before winding up in 2001.

This followed advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which advised officers that there were no grounds to justify a prosecution against the surgeon.

Neale, from Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, was struck off the medical register in July 2000 after 34 out of 35 specimen allegations of serious professional misconduct were proved by the General Medical Council.

Following protests from Sheila Wright-Hogeland, a victim of Neale and the founder of the 300-strong support group formed by former patients, North Yorkshire Police re-opened the case.

Inquiries into the former head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Friarage Hospital have focused around the deaths of three former patients and allegations of assault and deception.

During the GMC investigation, it was found he lied to patients about the length of NHS waiting lists to encourage them to go private, boasted he was part of a non-existent network of North Yorkshire specialists and claimed to have won a gold medal for surgery, a trophy he purchased from a dealer.

Detective Chief Inspector Nigel Boynton, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "We are systematically working through a lot of medical records with the help of a barrister and a specialist CPS officer.

"We are talking about a lot of work and a lot of traumatised people who are not happy with the standard of care they received."

Graham Maloney, advisor to the Neale patient support group, who first raised the issue of police action in 1999, said: "We were totally dissatisfied with the first police inquiry and we have no confidence that they will do more this time around."