VICTIMS of the infected blood scandal have demanded justice after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak offered a “wholehearted” apology.
The Prime Minister apologised today saying it was a “day of shame for the British state” following the final findings of the inquiry.
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Today a long-awaited report by Sir Brian Langstaff found there was a culture of “institutional defensiveness” which contributed to the scale of the scandal.
The compensation payments are set to reach around £10billion and will be laid out by ministers on Tuesday.
Bruce Norval, from Inverness, demanded proper compensation for his remaining days claiming “most of the heroes are dead”.
He was diagnosed aged 23 with Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products.
The 59-year-old dad of two has endured serious health struggles since and wants to enjoy the remaining time with his wife who is terminally ill.
He said: “I have a strong melancholic feeling, like I have the ghosts of my mates walking with me.
“It’s a battlefield and most of the heroes are dead. It’s been a pilgrimage and the pilgrimage is towards the truth.
“Murder isn’t the right word. It’s more brutal than that. We watched our friends be murdered, their bodies harvested for organs and samples and carcasses offered back to families for burial.
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“There is awfulness in every page of this inquiry but it’s the truth.
“Individuals have been affected but families have been destroyed, they see you every day losing weight and being sicker and falling apart and not coping.
“My daughter talked about not being sure when she walked home from school if I’d be alive or dead when she opened the door.
“They watched their parents get destroyed and the government deny any responsibility for that and we have a lot of damaged families now that didn’t have to be that way.”
Bruce added: “Living victims could be compensated tomorrow. They have a record of every one of our bank accounts and it would involve a few button presses after the chancellor releases the money.
“My wife has got terminal cancer and I want to spend meaningful time with her. It’s not that long ago I was going down the back of our couch looking for coppers to pay my kids’ school dinner money.
“The level of physical humiliation attached to this shouldn’t be understated. All the victims deserve a bucket list whatever it involves.”
NATIONAL DISGRACE
Sir Brian’s report ruled that the government realised people could be infected with HIV through contaminated blood transfusions going back to 1982.
Sir Brian said this was known by “all haemophilia doctors” but a test to screen any blood donations was not in place until October 1985.
More than 30,000 people were infected with deadly viruses – with campaigners today saying the final report was “the beginning of the end” in their fight for justice.
The report revealed that more than 1,000 people who had bleeding disorders were infected with HIV with 75 per cent of them losing their lives.
Musician Bob Strachan has sought justice for nearly four decades after his haemophiliac dad John, died aged 44 in 1987 after contracting HIV from one of his regular blood transfusions.
The pastor and father of two, who lives in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire has campaigned constantly for answers after what happened to his father who was a church elder in Aberdeen.
He said: “The Inquiry outlines what happened and shows the responsibility of government and the cover ups.
“I’m hoping for a good response from the government. If not, I can see people taking it to court and filing wrongful death claims.
“It comes to the point where you start to feel our loved ones were murdered. When you look at it, they were poisoned.
“It’s a strong word. Even though they said there was no conclusive proof, there was evidence that HIV was transferred via blood products and this was known to the NHS.
“If you knowingly inject someone with something that potentially then takes their life, you’d be guilty of culpable homicide.
“Look at the evidence we’ve been presented, nobody has been able to go to court with so much substantial evidence against a government – and it’s compiled by a judge so nobody can question the validity.”
Bob, 45, now awaits discussions over compensation – and he expects the figures to be larger than the £600,000 offered to victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
He added: “It’ll have to be sufficient enough to satisfy everyone involved
“The Post Office investigation is ongoing yet they’ve paid out compensation for that. So they’re going to have to do something quickly.
“And those involved with the Post Office are not losing people, we’re losing two people each week and that’s shocking. These people all died without justice.
“For myself, it has to be substantial. A loss of earnings has to be taken into account alongside a loss of pension and inheritance.
“The Post office set a benchmark of £600k per estate and that’s the bare minimum.
“It depends what they do and if it’s per estate or per person so we will wait and see what they do and how it’s implemented.
“As a group we have to come together to decide it.”
The report on the infected blood scandal lays bare “decades of gross and culpable failures”, according to a law firm which represented hundreds of Scots affected by contaminated blood.
Thompsons Solicitors, which represented 300 individuals and two charities in the Infected Blood Inquiry, said the “hard-hitting” report set out a number of Scotland-specific failures that led to “so much suffering and death”.
These included, the firm said, failures in Scottish blood transfusion services in the 1980s and numerous “missed opportunities” to remedy the injustices brought about by the scandal.
The infected blood scandal saw thousands of patients becoming infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, with around 2,400 people dying.
It is estimated that around 3,000 people in Scotland were given contaminated blood, whether through NHS transfusions or as part of haemophilia treatment, with hundreds subsequently dying.
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Lynn Carey, associate at Thompsons, said: “We welcome the publication of the report on behalf of every Scottish victim of the contaminated blood scandal. The report is hard-hitting and in many ways difficult to read.
“Sir Brian Langstaff has laid bare the decades of gross and culpable failures that caused so much pain, suffering and death.”
