DOCTORS from the hospital at the centre of last week’s court decision over whether to let a baby die are under police investigation over the care of another child.

Portsmouth police have confirmed that a file on the incident — in which doctors wanted to let a severely handicapped 12-year-old boy die — has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The disclosure follows last week’s High Court ruling that doctors at the hospital were right not to try to “prolong the death” of the handicapped 11-month-old Charlotte Wyatt by resuscitating her when she next collapses. The decision had been challenged by Charlotte’s parents.

The allegations under investigation by police involve David Glass, then 12, whom doctors at St Mary’s hospital, Portsmouth, determined was dying and put a “do not resuscitate” order in his notes without telling his mother.

The boy’s condition deteriorated and doctors started administering diamorphine, which depresses breathing, to relieve his distress. But his family intervened, claiming he was not dying. This led to a scuffle in which doctors and police officers were injured.

The family — three of whom were convicted for their part in the fight — took the case to the European Court of Human Rights and won a verdict that the rights of the boy had been violated. Glass is now 17 and, although severely handicapped, is living at home with his mother in Portsmouth.

After the European court hearing, its findings were passed to Hampshire police with a view to pursuing a prosecution of the doctors. A police spokesman said: “There is an investigation. A file has been sent to the CPS.”

Richard Stein, the solicitor acting for the Glasses, has also reported the doctors to the General Medical Council.

David Glass’s aunt and uncle served prison sentences for their assaults on doctors. They are now consulting the Criminal Cases Review Commission about getting their convictions overturned.

Carole Glass, David’s mother, said this weekend: “What the doctors did was wrong. Being handicapped and being terminally ill do not run hand-in-hand.”

A spokesman for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said yesterday that it was “very disturbed” to hear that police had gone back on assurances that no action would be taken against the paediatricians involved in the David Glass case. “The Trust has today instructed its lawyers to make urgent inquiries from the CPS and the police as to why they are expending public money reopening a case where they have already made a decision not to prosecute,” the spokesman said.

Richard Stein, the lawyer who acted for the Wyatts as well as the Glass family, said yesterday: “Recent events in Portsmouth might signify that the lessons from the Glass case have not been learnt.”

The Glass and Wyatt cases have brought to the fore the ethical difficulties doctors face in treating handicapped patients. They will be highlighted next month when a group of doctors at the Royal London hospital face a judicial review of their actions. In this case, also handled by Stein, doctors allegedly directed without the family’s consent that Ayesha Begum, a severely handicapped 11- year-old girl, should not be resuscitated.

The hospital declined to comment this weekend.

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