“My father was sentenced to death by a doctor, now the truth is revealed”

A son whose father died after unknowingly contracting HIV said he felt he was with him when he heard the findings of a damning report into the scandal that killed him.

Brian Brierley was a much loved chemist based in the Kensington area of ​​Liverpool. His shop was the heart of the community and Brian was known as someone who always wanted to help others and fight injustice.

When he died suddenly in 1991, aged just 49, many of the hundreds of people who attended his funeral had no idea that his life had been cut short by life-sustaining health treatments.

MORE: My funny and caring brother was the victim of a scandal that not enough people know about

MORE: My father was always looking out for people, but when he became the victim of a scandal, he felt he couldn’t tell anyone, including me.

Brian is one of 3,000 people who died in the infected blood scandal. In total, more than 30,000 people were infected with the deadly viruses while receiving NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s. It has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service.

Brian’s son Sean is one of the many campaigners who have fought tirelessly for the truth of what happened in this scandal to come to light.

Sean only learned of his father’s HIV diagnosis years after his parents had done what they had tried to do to shield him and his brother from the devastating news. After his sudden and devastating death, Sean began to investigate the scandal and the attempted cover-up that the investigation has now exposed for all to see.

Speaking as the report was published on Monday, inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff described the scale of the scandal as “appalling”. His report made clear that what took place was “largely avoidable” and that there was a “pervasive” attempt by the authorities to cover up the truth, including the destruction of documents by Whitehall officials.

Sean was in London for the report’s unveiling. He said it was a day of intense emotions, but with an overall feeling.

“Claim,” he said.

“That’s the word for me. We’ve been fighting for this for years and we’ve been vindicated. He (Sir Brian) looked at the evidence objectively, went through all the evidence available – despite cover-ups and destruction of documentation – and came to conclusion that it was wrong.

“He is very clear that this was not an accident, it was intentional, they absolutely knew the products were dangerous and continued to distribute them to patients.”

“We’ve known this for years, but the way the government has tried to avoid it has made it difficult for us. They have used the media in the past to spread untruths, but now it is there in black and white in seven volumes. It is there for all to see and it is undeniable. There are no more different versions of events.”

Sean was full of praise for inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff, adding: “He said it so eloquently, so succinctly and in a way it was so British, so understated. When you see the enormity of what happened, there is no stronger way to be than understated. The facts speak for themselves.”

“We couldn’t have asked for a better investigative chair.”

“It was the best ratio we could have hoped for, 100%. The main recommendations are there in black and white, you can see exactly what happened, the lies that happened – it’s all there and that’s the key. It stops. the narrative that this could not have been avoided. Everyone can see that people did not need to die.”

Sean said there was a particular moment when he was sitting in the room listening to Sir Brian describe his findings when he felt his father was with him.

His voice breaking with emotion, he said, “There was an empty seat next to me, and there was a moment when I thought he was sitting next to me.”

He added: “I haven’t had a chance to process what it means to me and my family yet. When you have this feeling of injustice and it lasts so long. I can’t say that we can finally put an end to everything now, because there are still things to fight for. We need to demand that things change and that people be held accountable so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

“We have taken a huge leap forward with this report. The next phase will be how to prevent this from happening again. But we will use these moments to reflect on what happened.”

Asked how he would like his father to be remembered, Sean added: “My dad just cared about people. He was always there for everyone else, always the first to try to do things to help people. I only recently found out that he was one of the first people to set up a needle exchange for drug users in the country, that was the kind of man.

“When something was wrong, he always stood up and fought against it. That’s his legacy, and for me, as a son, that’s what I thought was important to do – to carry the legacy forward and not just accept things the way they were.

“They used to tell us that you don’t get anything in life without a fight, and that’s exactly the case with this campaign.”

Don’t miss the biggest and breaking stories by subscribing to the Echo Daily newsletter here