Breast surgeon Ian Paterson jailed for 15 years

Ian Paterson
Ian Paterson was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three of unlawful wounding, after a trial last month.

Breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been jailed for 15 years after carrying out unnecessary operations.

Paterson, 59, operated on nine women and one man after falsely telling them they had breast cancer.

He was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three of unlawful wounding, after a trial last month.

Jurors at Nottingham Crown Court were told Paterson exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer.

The NHS has paid almost £10m in compensation to hundreds of his patients, while more than 350 private patients will pursue civil action against him later this year.

The court was told the defendant, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, urged patients to undergo procedures for “obscure motives” that may have included a desire to “earn extra money”.

The trial heard accounts from 10 victims – representing a sample of those he treated – operated on between 1997 and 2011, at the privately-run Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands.

Sentencing Paterson, who grew up in County Down, Northern Ireland, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said: “In pursuit of your own… material rewards, you lost sight of what you were doing.

“Without any regard for the long-term effects, you deliberately preyed on their long-term fears.

“You can be a charming and charismatic individual but you deliberately used those characteristics to manipulate your patients.”

Speaking at the sentencing, victim John Ingram, who underwent an unnecessary double mastectomy, described Paterson as a criminal who committed grotesque, violent acts.

Victim Carole Johnson described him as a “monster”.

In a victim impact statement read out in court she said she felt “violated and vulnerable” and she had “lost confidence” because of Paterson’s actions.

After sentencing, Pamela Jain, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said Paterson had repeatedly abused his victims’ trust for more than a decade.

The specialist prosecutor said: “He knew the procedures were not needed but carried on regardless, inflicting unlawful wounds on his patients.

“The impact of Paterson’s actions on his victims has been devastating, from the unnecessary distress of undergoing procedures they did not need, to the scars that will always serve as a physical reminder of what their doctor, Ian Paterson, did to them.”

Complaints about Paterson had been made for years but managers at the NHS trust that employed him “preferred good news to true news”, a 2013 report said.

Paterson, who was suspended by the General Medical Council after his arrest, was allowed to carry on operating on women for several years despite serious concerns raised about him by other staff, the report by lawyer Sir Ian Kennedy found.

Bosses at Heart of England NHS Trust failed hundreds of breast cancer patients, it said.

Sir Ian published his findings in December 2013 – more than three years before Paterson stood trial – although the jury was not told about his report.

Source: bbc.co.uk

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