A FERTILITY scientist who allegedly defrauded couples desperate to have children was suicidal and could not cope with his work at a private Basingstoke clinic, a jury heard.

Paul Fielding, 44, is accused of defrauding and assaulting women who wanted to conceive by failing to thaw frozen embryos which were ready to be placed in their wombs.

The prosecution alleges that while women underwent the sometimes painful implanting procedure at the private Hampshire Clinic, their embryos remained in super-cold storage in a nearby room.

Fielding - an embryologist - is alleged to have pocketed the extra £50 he was paid for the work in a bid to pay off his debts.

He is charged with assault because it is alleged three women suffered minor injuries during the procedure to which they only consented on the basis that they were having embryos implanted.

The trial has heard prosecutor Jeremy Gibbons QC allege that Fielding, formerly of Station Road, Whitchurch, had resorted to dishonesty to deal with his "horrendous" financial position - despite earning £49,000 per year.

Giving evidence at the trial at Southampton Crown Court, consultant psychiatrist Dr Paul Warren, from Parklands hospital in Basingstoke, said he first saw Fielding in August 2000 when problems with embryo storage had come to light and Fielding was suspended.

Dr Warren said: "He had already had two months of anti-depressant treatment and was still describing suicidal thoughts which I was convinced by."

The psychiatrist agreed with defence counsel Susan Edwards QC that Fielding had suffered increasing depression for three years and this would eventually have prevented his working efficiently.

Dr Warren added: "Work pressure was one of the factors he identified."

The jury also heard that relations between Fielding and his boss - the consultant gynaecologist Mr Robert Bates - had broken down to the point where, in January 2000, Mr Bates wrote telling Fielding he had lost confidence in him. The court heard that both Fielding and Mr Bates divided their time between NHS work at Basingstoke hospital and private work at the Hampshire Clinic.

In her evidence, Hampshire Clinic executive director Jan Hale agreed that the letter from Mr Bates typified the relationship between him and Fielding in a period when the clinic's fertility unit was showing poor results in conceptions.

Ms Hale denied she had put Fielding under a lot of pressure. She said: "The acid test was the results - his success rates. But I don't have the reputation of a great turnover of staff."

Ms Hale said Fielding was due to be replaced later in 2000 after haggling over a fresh job offer of 30 hours per week when he was facing redundancy from Basingstoke hospital. The court had heard earlier that Basingstoke hospital managers were planning to axe Fielding because his job at the Hampshire Clinic took up too much time.

Later, Gillian Dawes, Mr Bates' personal assistant, told the court how Fielding's laboratory records were "a shambles". She said: "There certainly seemed to be a significant backlog of work."

Fielding is facing eight counts of false accounting and three of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The alleged offences - all of which he denies - are said to have taken place between 1997 and 1999.

The case continues.