‘It’s not about the money’: Hope for criminal prosecution over contaminated blood scandal

The death of Ian Long’s father from HIV – which he contracted by receiving infected blood – has cast a long shadow over his life.

Long, 48, remembers watching his mother cry and her health deteriorate due to stress, his father lose his job due to stigma and fall into alcoholism, while he went off the rails, got kicked out of school and jeopardized a promising professional football career because he didn’t feel like he could leave home.

“There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t think about (my father),” he said, recalling the depth of his grief at catching a glimpse of his father standing on the sidelines during his football games after his death.

That’s why he feels so strongly that someone should be held accountable for what his family went through, and like many other relatives of victims of the tainted blood scandal, he wants criminal charges brought against the politicians and doctors involved.

“I’m not entirely sure how they got away with some of the things they got away with, but it feels like one rule for the elite and one rule for everyone else. Imagine what would happen if I infected people – that’s what people have been convicted of. “If you knowingly infect someone with a death sentence, there has to be something they should be charged with,” he said.

Long would like to see closure and justice through a corporate manslaughter case, similar to France.

“In this country it seems that the elite can get away with whatever they want in several respects. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets swept under the rug and these people are allowed to walk away. They knew what they were doing, there is a lot of evidence to prove that,” he said.

Long said if criminal charges weren’t on the table next week, he would be “very angry” and would join a campaign to put pressure on it.

His view is shared by Sue Harrison, 74, who became infected with Hepatitis C after being tested for a blood clotting disorder during which she was injected with factor VIII-contaminated blood. She is also ready to campaign and wants the media to increase pressure on corporate manslaughter allegations.

Harrison’s condition came to light in a particularly traumatic form: when she and her husband bought a dream retirement home in Northern Cyprus. To obtain a temporary residence permit, she needed a blood test. It was only when the police confiscated her passport and told her she would be deported as an “unwanted immigrant” that she learned she had been infected.

“I went into shock,” she remembers. “It knocked me sideways. I have been a teacher all my life, a positive member of society and because I have Hep, CI was no longer desirable for anyone because of the stigma.”

The disease had other effects on her life: She sold her “nice house” to get a cheaper mortgage so she could reduce her hours and then take early retirement to cope with the symptoms.

“There are people who have to go to court for corporate manslaughter, there is no doubt about that. There won’t be that many now because people have died, but the amount of evidence coming out of the investigation – and we’ll know a lot more on Monday – shows that beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Harrison said.

She added: “I would like people to be named, accept their guilt, stand up and admit they were wrong and actually apologise.

‘If you think: I’m still here… but how many people have lost their spouses, loved ones, parents, their children, children who have lost their parents, brothers and sisters who have been lost… who can never be replaced… because someone tried to save money.

“I’m going to use this terrible word: closure. For many people, that’s what matters. It’s not about the money.”