North Yorkshire police and the Crown Prosecution Service will next month review the case of disgraced former surgeon Richard Neale.

A spokesman for the force said reviews had been held regularly throughout the 18-month-long inquiry and it would not be clear until it was held whether this one would turn out to be more significant than others, or result in a prosecution.

He said: "Inquiries are still ongoing. The next review will take place in July when there is a meeting planned which will involve the CPS."

Neale, of Langthorpe, near Boroughbridge, was struck off by the General Medical Council last year after being found guilty of 34 counts of serious professional misconduct. He had worked for ten years at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton. He was also struck off in Canada over the death of a patient in the 1980s.

Updated: 11:57 Monday, June 18, 2001