The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned at School (ITV1)
The grief of mother Angela Newcombe is almost unbearable to witness. It hits you in the stomach and twists up towards the heart, a physical anguish.
Angela’s adored son Neil Hilliard died of Aids aged 22, in 1994 — the result of HIV from an injection of infected blood plasma when he was 12 years old.
The injection was carried out at school, and the doctors and teachers who oversaw his treatment were well aware that the blood extract they were using could be crawling with disease.
The existence of Aids was not widely known at the time, but the doctors were certainly aware that the injections they administered frequently to more than 120 boys in their care were likely to carry other contagions, such as hepatitis.
The evidence was in front of them every day, as children sickened and even died, yet still they carried on.
Mrs Newcombe is haggard with self-recrimination and guilt — though she has absolutely no reason to reproach herself for sending Neil to the school, Lord Mayor Treloar’s College, a boarding school for children with disabilities in Hampshire.
She could not possibly have known that her son, a haemophiliac like many others at Treloar’s, would be subjected to trials of a new treatment, Factor Eight, without regard for his safety.
The children and their families were not told what was going on until much later.
Adrian Goodyear, Steve Nicholls, Richard Warwick and Gary Webster have suffered a lifetime of illness, and seen at least 90 of their friends and fellow pupils die from the toxic plasma jabs
‘Guinea pigs, lab rats,’ said Steve, top left, through tears. ‘They had carte blanche to do what they wanted, really. They exploited those opportunities to do research on children. I’ll never forgive them for that, never’
Every line was powerful, but the victims’ statements, at the end of a public inquiry which concluded last year, were especially telling
But she cannot help blaming herself. ‘As parents, you’re supposed to keep them safe,’ she told The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned At School (ITV1).
‘I could have stopped it, if I hadn’t agreed for him to go to Treloar’s. That’s the main grief I suffer, the grief of sending him there. Sent him to his death.’
Of course, she would not have done it if she’d had even a suspicion that NHS doctors at the school were experimenting on children.
But the fears of parents were routinely ignored in any case. One boy was given regular injections even though his father wrote to refuse permission for the trials.
This documentary, the precursor to a future ITV drama, focused on four of the survivors, now in their 50s and 60s.
Adrian Goodyear, Steve Nicholls, Richard Warwick and Gary Webster have suffered a lifetime of illness, and seen at least 90 of their friends and
fellow pupils die from the toxic plasma jabs.
‘Guinea pigs, lab rats,’ said Steve, through tears. ‘They had carte blanche to do what they wanted, really. They exploited those opportunities to do research on children. I’ll never forgive them for that, never.’
Every line was powerful, but the victims’ statements, at the end of a public inquiry which concluded last year, were especially telling.
‘It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that we were deemed expendable, collateral damage,’ said Richard.
‘For the voices who fell silent, who lived a secret life and were forced to die a secret death, we’re here today for you,’ Adrian pledged. ‘No one is left behind.’
