Former Southland psychiatrist Peter Fisher, on trial for the manslaughter of a suicidal patient in northern England, was not medically registered, a jury at Carlisle Crown Court was told last night.
Prosecutor Alistair Webster said Fisher had failed to tell his employers at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven,
Cumbria, that he was not allowed to practise in the UK and he also did not disclose that authorities in New Zealand had ruled he should only work under "strict supervision".
Fisher, 46, who now lives in Devon, had been found guilty of professional misconduct in New Zealand over his care of paranoid schizophrenic patient Mark Burton, who was discharged a day before stabbing to death his mother, Paddy, in Queenstown in 2001.
Mr Webster said Fisher was in charge of the mental health ward at West Cumberland Hospital where Peter Weighman, 39, died after an overdose of painkillers, after admitting himself in a depressed state.
Fisher had failed to take the appropriate steps to prevent the father-of-two's death despite warning signs.
Fisher, who denies manslaughter through gross negligence, registered with the General Medical Council in 1985, and worked in various assistant medical posts before moving to New Zealand in 1992.
- NZPA
