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 In his private practice, Ian Paterson lied to exaggerate risks that
patients would develop breast cancer, performing needless surgery
and in some cases mastectomies for which patients paid, judge Jeremy
Baker said.
"The physical, and particularly, psychological effect upon each of
them, has been profound," the judge told Nottingham Crown Court.
The trial had heard that patients trusted the doctor who was
charming and reassuring, but were later left feeling violated and
vulnerable, with some having suffered prolonged psychological
distress.
The 59-year-old surgeon's motives were not clear, the judge said,
but he had shown a "complete lack of remorse" during the trial.
"I have no doubt that in pursuit of your own self-aggrandizement and
the material rewards which it brought from your private practice,
you lost sight of the fact that you were carrying out significant
surgical procedures," Baker said.
"Without any regard for the long-term effects which it had on them,
you deliberately played upon their worst fears," he said.
Speaking after the sentencing, Patricia Welch, one of Paterson's
victims, said she felt justice had been done but called for an
inquiry so that patients had full protection when seeking private
medical care.
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"We will never know the real reason he has acted in such an evil
way," she told reporters outside the court. "It will never go away
because you just see it in the mirror every morning."
(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary, editing by Estelle Shirbon)
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