A MOTHER accused of poisoning her daughter got the medication illegally on the internet before her treatment was backed by a Belgian specialist in hormone therapy, a jury has been told.

Dr Thierry Hertoghe saw Mary Kidson and her daughter in Brussels over two consultations and agreed with her treatment.

He prescribed the medication which she then obtained from pharmacists in Belgium because it was not available without prescription in that country or in the UK.

Dr Hertoghe was giving evidence for the defence by video link to Brussels from Worcester Crown Court.

He told the jury he was the president of the International Hormone Society, with 3,000 members worldwide, the author of a number of books on hormone therapy and a frequent speaker at conferences across the world.

He said he had seen Kidson and her daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in October, 2012 and again in January, 2013. When he heard the 16-year-old had been taken off his medication by UK health professionals in March, 2013, he wrote to tell them the withdrawal would be damaging but received no reply.

Kidson, of Dymock Road, Ledbury, denies three charges of administering poisonous or noxious substances so as to endanger life or cause grievous bodily harm to her daughter by giving her hydrocortisone tablets, oestrogen and thyroid extract between December, 2010 and March, 2013.

The jury has heard from UK medical experts that the treatment was unnecessary because the girl did not have any of the conditions it was used for.

John Causer, prosecuting, said Kidson had gone "doctor shopping" and had referred her daughter to hospitals in Hereford, Birmingham and to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London as well as private consultations with leading experts.

The girl was discharged after being seen by two prominent health professionals in the UK in June, 2012 but her mother took her to see Dr Hertoghe in October the same year.

The doctors had told her it was "all in the mind", Dr Hertoghe said.

He described the NHS as being 30-40 years out of date in its testing and practices and he diagnosed the girl as having hormone deficiency and chronic fatigue syndrome.

He said he was "extremely surprised" the NHS doctors had not replied to his letter in March 2013, which he sent after the girl had been taken from her mother by social services, because withdrawal from the treatments could be dangerous.

"The girl has been left in a no hope no future situation," he said.

Cross-examined by Mr Causer, he said she must have got the medication she was using before she came to him illegally off the internet.

The trial continues.