Further two inquests into deaths of rogue breast surgeon's ex-patients opened

Independent

03-06-2025

A further two inquests have been opened and adjourned into the deaths of former patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson.
Paterson is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found to have carried out unnecessary and unapproved procedures on more than 1,000 breast cancer patients over 14 years.
The consultant breast surgeon, who was employed by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and practised in the independent sector at Spire Parkway and Spire Little Aston, all in Birmingham between 1997 and 2011, was convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and three counts of unlawful wounding and sentenced in 2017.
A series of inquests examining the deaths of 62 former patients of Paterson, which may have been unnatural, began at Birmingham Coroner's Court in October last year with judge Richard Foster presiding over them.
On Tuesday, the coroner opened two further inquests into the deaths of Judith Ingham, 60, and Pearl Tatlow, 75, and adjourned them to be heard sometime later in the year or early 2026.
The court was told Mrs Ingham was born in Leeds and was a chartered accountant before she died of metastatic breast cancer at home in Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, on March 20 2022.
Mrs Tatlow, a retired secretary from Solihull, died in a hospice in Birmingham on July 28 2002 of carcinomatosis and carcinoma of the right breast.
The series of hearings were paused at the end of last year after Paterson raised concerns that one of the medical experts on the inquests' multidisciplinary team (MDT), which reviewed cases where former patients of his had died, had shown bias and that their evidence should be excluded.
He cited an email from one of the MDT experts, professor and consultant breast surgeon Mike Dixon, in which he wrote to another member: 'We need to find some way though of exposing Paterson as a liar and an incompetent surgeon.'
While the email was 'unfortunate, inappropriate and clumsy', Judge Foster said, it was not by itself indicative of actual or unconscious bias.
Despite this, he concluded it was best that Professor Dixon withdraw from the MDT for the purposes of the ongoing inquiries.
The hearings continued on Monday with the inquest of Elaine Morris, who died on May 9 2002 aged 45.
Ms Morris, who suffered severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy, was a wheelchair user and cared for by her mother at their home in Shirley, near Solihull, before she died, the hearing was told.
She had been referred to see Paterson in August 1999 by her GP after complaining of pain and a lump in her right breast when she was 42.
No next of kin had been found for Ms Morris, the coroner said.
The hearing continues.