Warrant issued for BBC presenter

Art critic and BBC TV presenter Robert Hughes faces arrest in Western Australia after failing to make a court appearance.

Hughes says he is unfit to make the 24-hour flight from his home in New York to answer dangerous driving charges resulting from a car crash three years ago which left him in a coma for five weeks.

Magistrates issued an arrest warrant for him but outside the court in Perth, Hughes's lawyer, Mark Andrews, said his client wanted to return to clear his name.

Hughes was charged after a head-on crash in 1999 and appeared for a two-day trial in 2000.

However, the charges were dropped after police were told the second car's driver and a private investigator were conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

They were charged with trying to extort £10,000 from the Australian critic in exchange for false testimony, but the charges against Hughes were later reinstated. Mr Andrews said Hughes had been advised by a specialist that his leg, fractured in the accident, had not yet healed.