DAY OF SHAME

HIV & hep C deaths were 'not accident' inquiry reveals | Calls for the guilty to face charges for manslaughter

- ASHLEY COWBURN

THE sickening revelations of the Infected Blood Inquiry made yesterday "a day of shame for the British state", said Rishi Sunak.

Sir Brian Langstaff, who led the inquiry, said the "disaster" that led to 3,000 deaths and 30,000 people infected with HIV and hepatitis C from the 1970s to the 90s was not an accident.

Sir Brian said: "The infections happened because those in authority - doctors, the blood services and successive governments did not put patients' safety first."

He found ministers and officials closed ranks in a "chilling" cover-up that involved the destruction of key documents while lives were wrecked by infected blood and blood products.

Children at a school where pupils were treated for haemophilia were used as "objects for research" and "very few escaped being infected".

Mr Sunak, who last year refused to set up a compensation scheme requested by Sir Brian, said the report "should shake our nation to its core".

The Prime Minister said: "From the NHS to the civil service, to ministers in successive governments, at every level, the people and institutions in which we place our trust, failed in the most harrowing and devastating way.

"They failed the victims and their families - and they failed this country."

Campaigners gathered outside Central Hall in Westminster after the publication of the report, including Cressida Haughton, whose father Derek died, and Deborah Dennis who lost her husband Barrie.

At the nearby Methodist Central Hall a memorial was formed from blood vials containing personal messages from stricken families.

Some may benefit from a £10billion compensation scheme which is expected to be announced today.

There were calls last night that those responsible for the infected blood disaster face prosecution.