An infected blood victim’s family has slammed the Government’s “insulting” refusal to compensate those driven to attempt suicide.
Justine Gordon-Smith’s late dad Peter tried to take his own life several times amid a devastating health battle after being given blood infected with Hepatitis C during what is now known as the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.
The talented jazz musician and club manager, who had haemophilia, was one of more than 30,000 people in the UK to be infected with HIV or Hepatitis C by NHS blood products.
Justine, from Leith, Edinburgh, and her sister were on “24 hour suicide watch” for a year as her dad’s mental health took a downward spiral before his death in 2018, saying they were “abandoned” to care for him without support.
Earlier this year, Justine shared her dad’s harrowing story with the Government in a bid to help reshape a controversial redress scheme for families like hers.
But she was left horrified by a “disrespectful” report concluding that linking more compensation to suicide may cause living victims to “feel pressured to harm themselves” to get more cash for their families.
View 5 ImagesJustine Gordon-Smith is campaigning for justice for her dad(Image: UGC)
Justine spoke out as she and many other families chose to boycott a memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
She said: “Dad died not knowing the truth about what really happened to him or ever receiving justice or recognition or even an apology for the destruction of his life.
“For us, the government refusal to recognise how much he and other people who attempted to or took their own life suffered, is the final insult amongst this two tier system where the dead and the people who have lost their lives are not just trampled all over, but discarded.
“People were not driven to take their own lives for money, but because they had reached a point of wretchedness where life was torturous and frightening and unfaceable. The reason this matters so much to us, is because we saw that suffering, and were witness to what dad went through, and have to live with those memories painfully etched into our minds and our broken hearts.”
It is estimated that about 3,000 people in Scotland were given infected blood in the 1970s and 80s.
Many had received transfusions on the NHS, while others, like Peter, were being treated for haemophilia. Hundreds have now died.
View 5 ImagesPeter died in 2018 after a painful health battle(Image: UGC)
Justine shared her anger as another grieving daughter Alison Britton told the Record last week how the dead were being “pushed to the back of the queue” in the long-running redress battle.
Her father John Anderson died in 2011 aged 72 after being infected with Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service has been criticised for not adequately screening donors.
Scotland was first in the UK to commission a public inquiry. But after a six-year probe costing around £12m was branded a “whitewash”.
A UK probe, by Sir Brian Langstaff, found in 2024 that the disaster could largely have been avoided and the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (IBCS) was also rolled out that year – pledging to pay out £11.8billion. But an extra inquiry report found that victims had been “harmed further” during the process.
Randolph Peter Gordon-Smith, known as Peter, grew up in Aberdour, Fife, and was the manager of the Cell Club in Glasgow and Club Eleven – where the Beatles played in the early 60s.
He was told he had hepatitis C in 1994 after undergoing “crippling” clinical trials using high purity blood products.
Justine said it led to her “handsome, funny and witty” father losing his health, his business and his home.
View 5 ImagesPeter managed Glasgow music venues(Image: UGC)
In 2016, he was told he had cancer and went through “excruciating” treatment due to his severe liver disease. He made several attempts to take his own life before his death aged 78.
Justine, who had to postpone her research pHD to care for her dad, said: “Dad had fits and would just shake for hours on end.
“He had to suffer the indignity of being infected then not being provided with proper palliative care.”
The inquiry report from 2024 details harrowing accounts of suicide and attempted suicide.
In March, Justine told Peter’s story to a round table which vowed to gather targeted evidence on the subject. But in April, a government report concluded: “Even with the best explanation, we believe that linking more compensation to evidence of suicide creates a risk that the Scheme is misinterpreted, and places vulnerable people at risk if they feel pressured to harm themselves to help their families get more compensation.”
Justine has now penned a furious letter to Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, who chairs the UK Cabinet Office’s Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Technical Expert Group (TEG) saying grieving families had been left “aghast” at the “insulting paragraph”.
In a further letter to Nick Thomas–Symonds, Minister for the Cabinet Office, Justine slammed the “two tier system of justice for living and deceased victims” and compensation being offered to those who cared for victims.
She said: “My sister and I both cared for dad, on 24 hour suicide watch for over a year. Yet the government will not measure care and is only willing to compensate for six months 24/7 care and at the minimum wage. Now we are told the Care Award is to be treated as an estate asset and not as recognition of the sacrifices we made as women and daughters.”
View 5 ImagesJustine, right, and sister Rachel, pictured around the time dad Peter was infected(Image: UGC)
Latest figures show more than 18,500 registrations for compensation have been received, with just over £2.1bn paid so far to more than 3,000 people.
Most cases that have been completed are for victims who are still alive.
Justine said she will continue the fight to highlight the impact of the scandal on those driven to the brink and those who supported them.
She said: “We need to reach a point, where the scandals stop and our country is able to take responsibility and address injustice promptly.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attended the St Paul’s memorial yesterday, saying: “We stand with the infected blood community to bear witness to the lives lost and those changed forever. As a nation, we must ensure the lessons of this scandal are never forgotten.
“I pay tribute to their extraordinary courage and dignity in their long fight for truth and justice.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attended the St Paul’s memorial yesterday, saying: “We stand with the infected blood community to bear witness to the lives lost and those changed forever. As a nation, we must ensure the lessons of this scandal are never forgotten.
“I pay tribute to their extraordinary courage and dignity in their long fight for truth and justice.”
The UK Government has stated it wants to avoid a scheme that forces bereaved families into an invasive and potentially retraumatising process of having to “prove” a specific causal link between an infection and a suicide.
A spokesman said: “The latest changes to the compensation scheme mean more compensation for those who have been impacted by the infected blood scandal, and following feedback from a consultation on how the scheme was working, we have made changes so it is as accessible as possible.
“We want to support all people who are eligible to make claims, while recognising no amount of money can ever truly compensate this injustice.
“This Government is committed to ensuring that the people applying to the scheme only need to provide the minimum possible evidence to receive their compensation, in order to avoid an invasive process.”
Article continues below
Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources. Click HERE