Victims’ stories

‘He took away part of me as a woman’

When Ian Paterson told Patricia Welch she was a “ticking time bomb” she felt she had no option but to have her breast removed.

But now, having been told the operation had been entirely unnecessary, she accuses him of taking away part of what it was for her to be “a woman”. Ms Welch had a lump removed from her breast by Paterson in 2001. He told her further precancerous cells were found and recommended a full mastectomy.

In a statement read out in court, she said: “Before being told that they were unnecessary, when I looked at myself in the mirror I saw someone that had avoided cancer by having a mastectomy. Now, and probably for the rest of my life, I see a victim of Ian Paterson who took away part of me as a woman.”

John Ingram, 53, was told he had “pre-cancer” by Paterson after finding a lump in his right breast in 2006. Mr Ingram, whose mother had died of cancer, had a double mastectomy, believing it was a “lifesaving decision”. He was told later there was no justification for the surgery.

He described Paterson as a “criminal” who used a cloak of professionalism “to commit grotesque violent acts against me and the other victims”.