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Two more inquests open for jailed surgeon Ian Paterson's patients

Two more inquests open for jailed surgeon Ian Paterson's patients

BBC News03-06-2025
A further two inquests have been opened into the deaths of former patients of jailed surgeon Ian Paterson, bringing the total number of inquests to 63.The coroner, Judge Richard Foster, opened the inquests into the deaths of Judith Ingham, aged 60, and Pearl Tatlow, 75, on Tuesday morning. Judge Foster then adjourned the two inquests, to be heard either later in 2025 or in 2026.Ian Paterson was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017, after being convicted of wounding patients with botched and unnecessary operations. The inquests are to determine whether the women died an unnatural death as a result of Paterson's actions.
The inquests will include determining whether any of the former patients had so-called cleavage-sparing mastectomies from Paterson, where some breast tissue was retained.A previous additional inquest into the death of Christine Gould, a kitchen assistant from Solihull, was closed after the inquest concluded that she was not operated on by Paterson and died of natural causes.Paterson is known to have treated thousands of patients at hospitals in the West Midlands.
On Tuesday, the inquest heard that 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 20 March 2022. Mrs Tatlow, a retired secretary from Solihull who had been widowed, died in a hospice in Birmingham on 28 July 2002 of carcinomatosis and carcinoma of the right breast.Mrs Ingham's husband and a family member for Mrs Tatlow were present for the inquest openings via video-link.After Judge Foster opened and adjourned the inquests into Mrs Ingham and Mrs Tatlow, the coroner returned to the inquest of Elaine Morris.
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