Families win long fight for hepatitis C deaths inquiry

The grandmother was one of many innocent victims fatally infected with the debilitating hepatitis C virus by contaminated NHS blood stocks during the 1970s and 1980s.

After a long campaign, her relatives yesterday celebrated a judge's landmark decision that will force Scottish ministers to launch an inquiry into the scandal.

Lord Mackay overturned a 2006 ruling by Scotland's most senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, who ruled there should not be fatal accident inquiries into the deaths of Mrs O'Hara, 72, and the Rev David Black, 66, a haemophiliac who died of hepatitis C in 2003. Lord Mackay held that Ms Angiolini's decision had breached their human rights.

It is thought to be the first time a Scottish judge has quashed a decision of the Lord Advocate.

Mrs O'Hara's daughter, Roseleen Kennedy, said: "We knew we couldn't change what had happened. It's really been for us about finding out the truth, and always realising that there's hundreds of others out there that may still have this to go through. We didn't want anyone else to be in this position."

Another daughter, Annette O'Hara, 39, from Bishopbriggs, said: "I'm delighted that at last we get an opportunity to find answers to the questions we've had for many years.

"It's been a struggle. It has been very difficult at times, but luckily we are a close-knit family and we've been able to support each other. It would have been easy to give in, but we just felt that we had to do it for our mother."

Mrs Kennedy, 42, from Scotstoun, Glasgow, described how her mother's illness had gone undiagnosed until 1995, when she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and subsequently hepatitis C. She contracted it during one of two operations on her heart in 1986 and 1991.

"It wasn't just one part that hurt – it was her whole body," she said. "Her stomach became swollen, her liver and spleen enlarged. Later on, she needed a wheelchair whenever she wanted to go out.

"She had always been a very active person. In the final weeks, she was bedridden in hospital."

A summary of Lord Mackay's findings said any investigation "could include the Lord Advocate seeking a fatal accident inquiry before a sheriff or the setting up of a public inquiry by the Scottish ministers".

The previous Labour administration at Holyrood had resisted calls from victims and their families for a public inquiry, but the SNP government has said one will be held. Its remit has yet to be established.

Frank Maguire, of Thompsons Solicitors, has campaigned on the family's behalf for more than three years.

He said that while the inquiry would focus on the deaths of Mr Black and Mrs O'Hara, it would have implications for other sufferers. "There are still people out there who have had transfusions in the 1980s and early 1990s who don't know they have hepatitis C because nothing has really been done about tracing them and they may have never come back into contact with hospitals since then," he said.

Hepatitis C is spread mainly through contact with the blood of a person who is infected. It can lead to liver failure, but it can take years, or even decades, for symptoms to appear.

ANXIOUS WAIT OVER 'TAINTED BLOOD' TESTS

BRITISH soldiers could face months of anxious waiting for tests to establish whether they were exposed to contaminated blood in Iraq and Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday.

All of the 18 military casualties given transfusions with blood that had not been tested properly have now been informed of the risk. But Derek Twigg, the defence minister, said some had still not had their tests completed because blood samples could not be taken for "some months" after the transfusion. It was revealed last month that seriously injured British troops had been given blood from the US military that had not been properly screened, meaning it could contain infections.

Mr Twigg added: "The MoD fully recognises the distress this will have caused."