Tainted blood scandal: records were falsified to paint victims as addicts and alcoholics, inquiry hears

Medical records have been destroyed and doctored to claim victims were drug addicts or alcoholics, as part of attempts to “cover up” Britain’s tainted blood scandal, an inquiry has heard.

A laywer representing 250 victims told the independent Infected Blood Inquiry said many had given similar accounts of files disappearing, or “false information” added, which suggested their own behaviour had caused liver damage or infection with HIV.

Aidan O’Neill QC urged the chair Sir Brian Langstaff to investigate claims of a cover-up when full hearings open next Spring.

Another lawyer acting for victims said the infection of patients with HIV and hepatitis was an act akin to inflicting grievous bodily harm – or murder in cases where the patients died.

Criminal lawyer Sam Stein QC said: “It is clear that those responsible for the criminal infection of people with contaminated blood should be prosecuted. Those people who wiped out haemophiliacs and other people should be made to pay for their crimes.”

Lloyd Williams QC, who is representing 107 victims and two haemophilia charities, told how one married woman was accused of having multiple sexual partners or using illegal drugs when she was diagnosed with hepatitis C.

She had actually contracted the virus from a blood transfusion during childbirth many years earlier.

He accused authorities of keeping their “mouths shut, files closed and shredders busy” for the past 30 years, adding: “A recurring theme is the great difficulty victims have had in obtaining their medical records and that when records have been obtained, they have crucial periods missing from them.”

He criticised the “appalling arrogance” of doctors who felt it was acceptable not to warn patients they might be at risk or had been infected.

In one case, a woman who regularly gave blood subsequently found out she had been infected with Hepatitis C more than a decade earlier but had never been told.

“No attempts were made to track her down, no attempts were made to prevent her from doing what she thought was best… She told me this morning she felt like a murderer,” he added.

Mr O’Neill, who represents Scottish victims, suggested there was a common pattern of attempting to blame victims for their diseases.

He said: “In many cases it appears that medical records have been redacted by persons unknown and important information has gone - but also false information has been added, in so many cases.

“[As] part of this culture of blaming the infected and affected, the suggestions have sometimes come in those medical records which have been recovered that this person must be an intravenous drug user or a secret alcoholic [and] they’re just not owning up to these issues.”

Doctors involved failed to register the human impact of the tragedy, he suggested, describing an example of a consultant who referred to haemophiliac twin brothers as his “young pups”.

“They thought it was a term of affection,” he said. “They didn’t know it was an acronym for Previously Uninfected Patients.”

David Lock QC, representing around 240 victims or their surviving relatives, said there was evidence civil servants may have destroyed vital documents, including the private papers of former health secretary Sir David Owen.

Alan Burgess

He said: “If it is true that civil servants deliberately destroyed documents to draw a line under the disaster, then the civil servants were the only individuals who could walk away from this disaster [following] the wanton and deliberate destruction of records. Our clients were required to live with the consequences of the decisions made by public officials for the rest of their lives.”

He added that all those responsible should be held accountable, even those who were “unable to speak for themselves” due to old age or having died.

The Scottish Government was accused of “cowardice” by victims for refusing to be involved in the Inquiry as a core participant. It will still have to comply with any demands the Inquiry makes because it has the power to compel Scottish officials to appear or to surrender documents.

Inquiry QC Jenni Richards said on Monday it was “a matter of regret that the Scottish Government has taken this position”. The inquiry continues.