Surgeon jailed after disfiguring victims in needless operations

A surgeon has been jailed for 15 years after he carried out a raft of needless breast operations, leaving his victims scarred and disfigured.

Ian Paterson was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding against ten patients last month.

Sentencing the surgeon of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday, Judge Jeremy Baker told him he was driven by his “own self-aggrandisement and the material rewards which it brought”.

The judge said: “You deliberately played upon their worst fears, either by inventing or deliberately exaggerating the risk that they would develop cancer, and thereby gained their trust and confidence to consent to the surgical procedures which you carried out upon them.”

Glasgow-born Paterson was handed 15 years for each count of wounding with intent, and four years for each count of unlawful wounding, all to run concurrently.

Before hearing his sentence, his victims told the court how his crimes had left them in constant pain and struggling to trust medical professionals.

To applause from the public gallery, John Ingram described Paterson, 59, as a “criminal” who has “never expressed remorse for his actions”.

He said: “He used the respectability and cloak of professionalism that came with being a consultant breast cancer surgeon to commit grotesque, violent acts against me and the other victims in this trial.”

Carole Johnson, who went under Paterson’s knife six times in seven years with all but the first procedure unnecessary, told the court Paterson was a “monster”.

Ms Johnson said she “feels violated and vulnerable” and has “lost a lot of trust in medical professionals”.

She said, since she learned her operations and procedures were unnecessary, her “world has been turned upside down”.

She added: “I do not think I can find it within my heart to ever forgive him.”

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

She 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.” 0 Ian Paterson was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of 17 charges of unnecessary operations and ‘unlawful wounding’