Rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been jailed at Nottingham Crown Court for 15 years after he carried out a series of needless operations on patients.
Ian Paterson was found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding against 10 private patients by a jury last month.
The seven-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard how he lied to patients and exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer to convince them to go under the knife
Jurors were told that the 59-year-old did so for “obscure motives” which may have included a desire to “earn extra money”.
Paterson maintained all the operations were necessary but the jury agreed with the prosecution that he carried out “extensive, life-changing operations for no medically justifiable reason”.
The 10 patients who gave evidence were treated in the private sector between 1997 and 2011 at Spire Healthcare’s Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands.
Ahead of Scottish-born Paterson’s court appearance, president of the Royal College of Surgeons Clare Marx said no sentence can “ever fully reflect the pain and suffering” experienced by his victims.
“No hyperbole can be strong enough to condemn the wretched actions he undertook,” she added.
“Ian Paterson was a rogue surgeon, and a liar who ultimately cheated his patients out of the care they needed.
“Simply put, he is a disgrace to the medical profession.”
A documentary focusing on Paterson will air on Channel 5 on Wednesday night at 10pm.
Entitled: The Butcher Surgeon, Why Wasn’t He Stopped? It features criticism from other breast surgeons, details of Paterson’s luxurious lifestyle and interviews with his victims.