In Dr Williams' study, 181 severely disabled adults were interviewed in 1989 and underwent a physical assessment. A year later, he re-interviewed by phone those who had been found to have un-met needs, to see whether those needs were now being met.
But alarm bells began to ring when Williams was struck off after admitting falsifying statistics in another research paper. The GMC also heard that 43-year-old Williams had lied about his qualifications in order to get the post of Senior Lecturer in Public Health Medicine at Bristol University.