A former British consultant gynaecologist who was struck off the Medical Register in Britain three years ago has left his north Cork home, which he bought 11 months ago.
Mr Rodney Ledward, originally from London, practised in at least five hospitals in the Kent area, where the offences are alleged to have occurred over the past 20 years.
Yesterday a report by a senior lawyer published in Britain severely criticised health service managers in Britain for their handling of the Ledward case. The report said that senior managers at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, failed to investigate concerns raised by staff and patients. Mr Ledward (62) was struck off in 1998, after he was found guilty of bungling 13 operations on women.
Since then hundreds of women have come forward to say they were left scarred or maimed by the consultant, who styled himself "the fastest gynaecologist in the south east".
Mr Ledward was a frequent visitor to Ireland and finally moved to the village of Dromohane, near Mallow, last July.
Villagers described him as a polite and reticent man. However, he had not been seen in the village for a week and it was thought he had gone to France or Spain.
There was intense British media interest in Mr Ledward's whereabouts this week. He was not practising here.
The report gave details of one woman who died following childbirth after Mr Ledward failed to note the seriousness of her condition and then left junior doctors to manage her complex case after performing a Caesarean.
When her husband asked Mr Ledward for an explanation, the consultant said: "These things happen".
One patient said Mr Ledward came to see her twice in hospital wearing riding clothes and carrying a whip.
Mr Ledward was finally dismissed by the hospital in 1996, after one of his private patients was left bleeding with serious complications following surgery performed by him.
The report criticised the British General Medical Council for delays which meant it was two more years before he was banned from practising.
Such was the climate of fear at the hospital that some junior doctors and nurses had refused to give evidence to the inquiry.