Dr Heather Steen fails to have some tribunal allegations dismissed

Dr Heather Steen previously applied to be voluntarily removed from the medical register on health grounds

A paediatrician accused of covering up the circumstances of a child's death has failed in a bid to have some allegations against her dismissed.

Dr Heather Steen has been accused of failings after the death of nine-year-old Claire Roberts at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1996.

She has denied allegations from the General Medical Council that she acted dishonestly and engaged in a cover-up.

The GMC brought a case to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).

The MPTS independently decides a doctor's fitness to practise.

Nine-year old Claire Roberts died in Belfast's Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1996

Previously at the tribunal, Dr Steen's barrister had made a submission about whether there was sufficient evidence to find some or all of the facts of 27 out of the 78 allegations against her proved.

On Friday, the MPTS granted the application to dismiss two allegations but said that there was sufficient evidence for the majority of allegations against Dr Steen to proceed.

Afterwards, Claire's parents Jennifer and Alan Roberts said they had been put through "more mental torment".

"For us as a family it's traumatic.

"As parents - as a mother and a father - we've been asking for truth and honesty now for 25 years and Dr Steen continues on with this culture of defend and deny. We are adamant that we will get the truth and justice will be served," said her father Alan.

Jennifer Roberts said: "This doctor has destroyed not only our life but Claire's brothers' lives."

She added: "No words can describe every day of missing Claire".

Doctor denies allegations

Claire Roberts' death was one of five deaths examined by the hyponatraemia inquiry into mismanagement of fluids in hospitals in Northern Ireland.

On the first day of the tribunal four months ago, Dr Heather Steen applied to be voluntarily removed from the medical register on health grounds.

Had it have been successful, the fitness-to-practise tribunal would have been halted as she would no longer have been a doctor, but this bid was rejected.

Dr Steen denied claims of a cover-up around Claire's death when she gave testimony to the hyponatraemia inquiry in 2012.

Dr Steen's tribunal is inquiring into allegations that between October 1996 and May 2006, she knowingly and dishonestly carried out several actions to conceal the true circumstances of the child's death.

The tribunal will continue on 19 September.