A survivor of a school at the centre of the contaminated blood scandal where pupils were viewed as “cheaper than chimps” says he feels vindication by Monday’s report after decades of campaigning.
As a child Richard Warwick, 58, was infected with HIV and hepatitis C during experimental trials when he was pupil at Treloar’s college – a specialist school in Hampshire for haemophiliacs.
“We were expendable,” Warwick told the Guardian. “We know that 80 pupils have died out of the 122 who went through the school between 1970 and 1987.”
He added: “We were given injections of different types of factor VIII [the infected blood product] – it was all prepared in syringes for us. They were chopping and changing different manufacturer in batches in what today would be called infectivity trials. We were eight- or nine-year-old kids.
“I hate the term guinea pig, but that’s what we were. We were ‘cheaper than chimps’ as was stated in a letter at the time.”
The final report into the scandal confirmed that children at the school had been used as “objects of research” while the risks of contracting hepatitis and HIV were ignored.
The inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, found Treloar’s pupils were treated with multiple commercial concentrates that were known to carry higher risks of infection and that staff favoured the “advancement of research” above the best interests of the children.
The report highlighted that parents and children at Treloar’s were given little information about their care and the related risks, and that parental consent was not sought regarding the use of different treatments.
It also recounted the callous way some pupils were informed that they had been infected with HIV. “The staff went around the room saying ‘yes, no, yes, no’ to indicate whether they were HIV positive,” the inquiry heard.
Langstaff said the way pupils were informed without any support was “insensitive and wrong”.
He wrote: “The evidence before the inquiry suggests, overwhelmingly, that there was no general system or process for telling parents of the risks of viral infection.
“Parents were not given details, nor even core information, about their children at Treloar’s for haemophilia.
“They were not told, for instance, that despite their home clinician’s recommendations as to the treatment product, the pupils were being given a range of different concentrates.”
The report found that from 1977, medical research was carried out at Treloar’s “to an extent which appears unparalleled elsewhere”.
Langstaff said: “The pupils were often regarded as objects for research, rather than first and foremost as children whose treatment should be firmly focused on their individual best interests alone. This was unethical and wrong.”
His report found there is “no doubt” that the healthcare professionals at Treloar’s were aware of the risks of virus transmission through blood and blood products.
He wrote: “Not only was it a prerequisite for research, a fundamental aspect of Treloar’s, but knowledge of the risks is displayed in what the clinicians there wrote at the time.”
Despite knowledge of the dangers, clinicians proceeded with higher-risk treatments in attempts to further their research, the report concluded.
Warwick said: “What appals me the most was that our parents put their full trust in the school to act in loco parentis and they betrayed that trust. It was disgraceful and shocking.
“The report is rightly super critical of the school – they actively recruited boys from as young as eight. They sent out glossy brochures, advertising the virtues of the college. But what they were actually doing, it now turns out, was conducting clinical trials and research.”
Warwick welcomed the report as the “culmination of 30 years of campaigning”. He said: “We are as close as we will ever get to justice. I don’t think anyone thought they would see this day.”
He added: “I want people to be held to account. I want those responsible flagged up and named and shamed. All governments are responsible who have let this slip through their fingers.
“Compensation won’t bring back anyone’s health and it won’t bring back children that were lost. But the government has to financially address this and recognise the years and years of salaries, pensions, mortgages that were lost. There was so much we missed out on while the government dragged its feet.”
Des Collins, a solicitor who represents more than 1,500 victims, said the school could now face criminal prosecution.
He said: “In time, we may learn whether Sir Brian is minded to refer Treloar school to the CPS, among other potential institutions. However, it is entirely possible that the Crown Prosecution Service may consider it now has sufficient grounds to begin its own investigation.
“There is certainly appetite for this level of accountability within the infected blood community.”
