Surgeon guilty of unnecessary ops

A breast surgeon has been convicted of carrying out a series of “completely unnecessary” operations.

Ian Paterson was described in court by one victim as being “like God”, lied to patients and exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer to convince them to go under the knife.

The 59-year-old did so for “obscure motives” which may have included a desire to “earn extra money”, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

After a seven-week trial Paterson was convicted by a jury of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding.

Judge Jeremy Baker released Paterson on conditional bail ahead of sentencing in May.

The maximum sentence for wounding with intent is life.

The Scottish-born surgeon had maintained that all the operations were necessary – but a jury of six men and five women agreed with the prosecution that Paterson carried out “extensive, life-changing operations for no medically justifiable reason”.

Paterson sobbed as the foreman of the jury returned the guilty verdicts, as did his daughter Emily, who was also in court.

Prosecutor Julian Christopher QC spoke of 20 unnecessary operations causing “really serious harm” to nine women and a man. Wildlife campaigner Chris Packham has called the dismissal of assault charges while filming an illegal bird trapping documentary “one of the most satisfying days of my life”.

The Springwatch presenter was cleared of two counts of assault when he appeared in court on the Maltese island of Gozo.

His team had left the cameras rolling during the incident and Packham said the video showed it was him and his team who were assaulted. He said: “We were recording everything. It was one of the most satisfying days of my life because when my colleague came in with the evidence the judge looked at it and put his head in his hands.”

“17 counts of wounding with intent”