Save the 8th campaign said that it stood by the adverts despite discovering that Noel Pattern was not honest in his testimony

The man portrayed as a nurse for an anti-abortion campaign held an eight-month portering role and falsified a qualification document.

Save the 8th, which campaigns against repeal of the Eighth Amendment, said yesterday it stood by the adverts despite discovering that Noel Pattern, 48, from Wexford, was not honest in the testimony. It said the main point was that Mr Pattern witnessed something he felt was unethical which had not been disputed. The adverts have been taken down at the end of a two-week booking.

The group said it had wrongly described Mr Pattern, as a psychiatric nurse because it misunderstood his healthcare experience. It was reported that he was an operating department practitioner, a clinical assistant to consultants and this enabled him to witness