A FORMER top doctor is due to stand trial next week after he denied four counts of child rape.

Paul Grout, of Stanley Street in Ulverston, is alleged to have carried out the offences in Barrow and Ulverston in 2020.

The 65-year-old will begin a week-long trial at Preston Crown Court on Monday (February 5).

Grout was the former deputy medical director for the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and worked as the site lead at Furness General Hospital.

He was suspended from work in 2021 with The General Medical Council also imposing restrictions on his practice pending the outcome of an investigation.

Bosses at the NHS Foundation Trust said that the alleged offences are not related to his work.

Earlier in his career, Grout was hailed as a hero after he helped to prevent more deaths following the Selby rail disaster, which killed 10 people and injured 82 others in February 2001.

The disaster involved a train derailing when it crashed with a car that came down a motorway embankment and was hit by another train travelling in the opposite direction.

To date, it is one of the UK’s worst rail crashes.

Mr Grout, then a senior consultant at nearby Hull Royal Infirmary, was the first medic to enter the wreckage.