Paediatrician's serial abuse

A Delaware grand jury returned a sweeping indictment yesterday against a paediatrician accused of serial molestation in what could be one of the worst child sex abuse cases in United States history.

The 160-page indictment charges Dr Earl Bradley of Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children.

Attorney-General Beau Biden said all the alleged victims, including one boy, were caught on more than 13 hours of video recordings, some dating to 1998, that were seized from Bradley's office and home.

After years of suspicions among parents and questions about his strange behaviour from colleagues, Bradley was arrested after a 2-year-old girl told her mother that the doctor hurt her in December when he took her to a basement room of his office after an examination.