Dr James Peters at the Supreme Court. Picture: Mike Keating Source: Herald Sun
What some of Peters' victims said. Source: Herald Sun
A DRUG-addicted doctor who infected 55 female patients with hepatitis C will fight his 14-year maximum jail sentence.
Disgraced anaesthetist James Latham Peters, 63, has sought leave to appeal his term in the Victorian Supreme Court for what Justice Terry Forrest labelled "truly reprehensible" crimes.
"The physical damage caused by your conduct, and the associated emotional harm, cannot adequately be described by me in words," Justice Terry Forrest told him in early March.
"The victim impact statements speak for themselves ... I cannot and do not allow myself to be overwhelmed by them, but neither can I ignore them."
Peters, who has hepatitis C, pleaded guilty to negligently infecting 55 women, though prosecutors said there were others.
"There are approximately 10 more who refused to speak to police for fear that their partners would learn that they had undergone terminations and were suffering from hepatitis C," chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert, SC, said.
Peters was addicted to the narcotic painkiller fentanyl, injecting himself with it.
Peters' addiction drove him to deceive
He then re-used the syringes when administering anaesthetic to women attending the Croydon Day Surgery for abortions.
The infections occurred between June 2008, and November 2009. "This was not a single transitory madness with 55 dreadful consequences," Justice Forrest told Peters.
"You had been addicted for many years, you knew you had hepatitis C, and you knew how it could be transmitted to others.
Judge's sentencing in detail (.*pdf)
"You breached the great trust that every patient places in his or her
treating doctor."
Imposing a minimum non-parole term of 10 years, the judge said he had to sentence the "professionally disgraced and socially isolated" man on a range of factors, not just the pain and suffering he had inflicted.
Peters had told the Medical Practitioners' Board of Victoria of his drug problem in 1995, but he kept secret his positive hepatitis C status.
Listen to the judge's sentencing remarks
His registration was suspended for a year from May 1996, and he remained under the board's supervision until February, 2010, when he was deregistered.
Fifty of the victims are suing Peters, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the former director of the Croydon Day Surgery.
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