A surgeon has admitted burning his initials into the livers of two transplant patients with a laser beam.

Consultant Simon Bramhall, 53, branded "SB" on the organs of a man and a woman undergoing transplant operations.

On Wednesday, he admitted two counts of assault by beating at Birmingham Crown Court but pleaded not guilty to alternative charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Liver surgeons use an argon beam to stop livers bleeding, but can also use the beam to burn the surface of the liver to sketch out the area of an operation.

It is usually not harmful and the marks would normally disappear.

But the female patient's liver did not heal itself in the normal way and the initials were found in a follow-up operation, it is alleged.