The pathologist at the centre of the Alder Hey organs scandal was today struck off the medical register after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

The General Medical Council (GMC) ruled that Dutch pathologist Dick van Velzen be banned from practising medicine in the UK - extending a temporary ban imposed four years ago.

A GMC disciplinary committee last week found 46 out of 48 charges proved against the Dutch pathologist, who took organs from children without relatives' consent while he was head of foetal and infant pathology at Liverpool's Alder Hey children's hospital between 1988 and 1994.

The fitness to practise panel, sitting in Manchester, had heard how Professor Dick van Velzen ordered the removal and stockpiling of hundreds of children's body parts without their parents' consent.

More than 2,000 pots containing body parts from around 850 infants were discovered at Alder Hey hospital during a public inquiry into the organ retention scandal.

Professor van Velzen was not present at the hearing and did not send any legal representation on his behalf.

The GMC suspended him from practising medicine in the UK four years ago, but that suspension was due to expire on August 1.

A public inquiry into the scandal found that between 1989 and 1995, the professor systematically ordered the "unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had had a post mortem".

Hundreds of distressed parents, who had been unaware they had buried their children with missing body parts, were forced to hold second funerals once the truth emerged.