Hep C doctor 'ruined our lives'

Dr James Peters at the Supreme Court. Source: Herald Sun

A DRUG-addicted doctor who visited the plague of hepatitis C on scores of women will have at least a decade in a cell to ponder the torment of those who trusted him.

Disgraced anaesthetist James Latham Peters, 63, was po-faced as he stood in the Supreme Court dock to be jailed for a maximum of 14 years for his "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.

"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."

James Peters'  victims tell of their torment

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.

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.

"You breached the great trust that every patient places in his or her treating doctor."

In 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.

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. Outside court, Slater & Gordon practice group leader Julie Clayton said Peters' victims had mixed feelings about the sentence.

"Prosecution and defence were united on one point, and that is that the medical board dismally failed to protect these women," she said.

Fifty of the victims are suing Peters, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the former director of the Croydon Day Surgery.

paul.anderson@news.com.au
 

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'Your stupid revenge destroyed our lives'

Nicholas Spohn was killed in a deliberately lit house fire at his hoime in Beachmere. Source: Supplied

THE mother of a man murdered in a deliberately lit Sunshine Coast house fire told her son's killer that God will judge him.

In the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice James Douglas sentenced Craig Anthony Leonard, 30, to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend Nicholas David Spohn, 23, and her aunt Jennifer Anne Bachmann, 43.

The court heard Rina Linda Mayall and Mr Spohn had only been dating for three weeks before her ex-boyfriend lit a fire that destroyed the Beachmere home the new couple had been sleeping in on April 17 2011.

Prosecutor Michael Byrne QC told the court that in the weeks leading up to the fire Leonard had sent a sexually explicit picture message of Ms Mayall to her phone threatening to post it on the internet if she did not repay a $1000 debt she had to him.

On April 11, 2011, he sent text messages falsely accusing her of having sexually transmitted diseases, ovarian cancer and made a "graphic suggestion" about an operation she needed.

The pair had broken up in January 2011 after about eight months of dating.

On the night of the fire, Ms Mayall had just gone to bed when a friend of Leonard's called her at 12.29am asking if Mr Spohn was with her.

Leonard was with the caller when Ms Mayall confirmed that she was in bed with her boyfriend.

The court heard that before listening in on the phone call Leonard had been drinking at the Caboolture Sports Club and had injected himself with methamphetamines.

Mr Byrne told the court that after the phone call Leonard took petrol from another resident at the Caboolture caravan park where he lived and drove to Ms Mayall's house and set fire to a mattress in a room on the ground floor of the home.

Ms Mayall told police she woke to feeling her feet burning and the sound of wood cracking.

Mr Spohn left their room but was never seen alive again and his body was found on the bathroom floor.

Ms Bachmann's remains were found on the floor of the room of Ms Mayall's six-year-old daughter, who was staying with relatives that night.

Ms Mayall escaped the fire but broke two vertebrae after jumping off the home's top level verandah.

The court heard Leonard initially denied any involvement in the murder and gave a "false and largely self serving account" to police.

He later admitted to police what happened and told them he "saw an orange glow coming from the house when he drove off," Mr Byrne told the court.

He told police he had wanted to scare Ms Mayall, "take her down a peg", temporarily ruin her financially and "put the wind up her".

There were five victim impact statements given to Justice Douglas today.

Mr Spohn's mother Erika Varga's victim impact statement was read by Mr Byrne and said her son's death was "senseless".

"You had no right to kill him ... God will judge you," the statement said.

"There is not one day that goes by that we don't think of him and miss him terribly."

Ms Varga's statement told the court her son has been caring for his brother who was seriously injured in a car crash just weeks before his death.

She said she had had a breakdown since her son's death and her family now struggled financially.

"It crippled us. You have destroyed our lives with your stupid revenge."

The court also heard a victim impact statement from one of Ms Bachmann's sisters, whose name has been withheld at the request of the court.

She said her sister's death, and not being able to recover her body, had led to her marriage breaking down.

"Jenny, like the house I saw on the news, had been reduced to nothing more than a shell," the sister's statement said.

"Now my five-year-old (child) says they want to die so they can see Jenny."

In a victim impact statement read by Mr Byrne, another member of Ms Bachmann's family told the court that "to know her life was reduced to nothing more than collateral damage is truly gut wrenching."

Leonard also addressed the court and said his actions were "uncharacteristic" and he hoped the victim's families could find closure in his admission of guilt.

"I feel great sorrow for the family of the deceased. I am deserving of all their bitterness and grief," he said.

Justice Douglas sentenced Leonard to life in prison with a non parole period of 20 years and he received six years imprisonment for arson and four years for grievous bodily harm.

Leonard has already served 674 days behind bars.

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