Question - is this enshrining abuse of very young ME patients in the UK and even much of Europe?
I think the question needs to be addressed in a slightly different form.
An adversarial legal system such as ours cannot function properly if one side is prevented from calling upon the expertise that it wishes to present. It seems to be coming to the point where you can call any expert as long as he/she supports the official line. If the courts are complicit in preventing the proper questioning of the state's case it is inevitable that miscarriages of justice will occur-as they always do. This is potentially a very serious matter for the integrity of the judicial system and the faith which the populace can be expected to have in it.
It may be that in the inquisitorial systems in place on the continent a decision such as this would have a different impact.
One recognises that it would be inappropriate to consider this too closely, but ask yourself, without commenting, what happens if Dr Speight has been instructed to advise and provide evidence in a an ongoing, purely hypothetical, case. Would it be possible for there now to be a fair hearing?