Charges dropped in Canada HIV tainted-blood scandal

Source: AFP

MONTREAL (AFP) — Canadian prosecutors on Friday dropped all charges against a former director of the Canadian Red Cross who had been implicated in the distribution of HIV-contaminated blood. Crown prosecutors told a court in Hamilton it would be virtually impossible to prove the case against Dr Roger Perrault which dates back to the 1980s and was Canada's worst health scandal.

"We have concluded that there no longer remains a reasonable prospect of conviction in this case," prosecutor John Pearson told the court.

Perrault had already been acquitted by the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto in October that ruled he was not criminally negligent in a separate case involving the contamination of seven children suffering from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.

Two other Canadian doctors, an executive of Armour Pharmaceuticals, and the US firm itself were also acquitted in that case. It was the first criminal trial in the scandal in which more than 20,000 people contracted human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C in the 1980s and 1990s. At least 3,000 people died, including 800 from AIDS. In the second trial, Perrault had faced six charges of negligence for failing to take the necessary measures to protect patients from contracting HIV and to inform the public about the dangers of blood products.

Perrault has not made any comment on the case. But his lawyer Eddie Greenspan said his client may sue the Canadian government for damages.

"Not every tragedy requires a scapegoat. Dr Perrault should have never been named for the tainted blood crisis," he said.