The death of Ian Long’s father from HIV – which he contracted through receiving contaminated blood – has cast a lengthy shadow over his life.
Long, 48, recalls seeing his mother crying and her health deteriorating from stress, his father losing his job due to stigma and descending into alcoholism, while he went off the rails, getting kicked out of school and compromising a promising professional football career because he didn’t feel he could move away from home.
“There’s not a day that goes by you don’t think of [my dad],” he said, recalling how his grief was so deep he would catch glimpses of his father standing on the sidelines at his football matches after his death.
This is why he feels so strongly that someone must be held responsible for what his family went through, and like many other family members of victims of the infected blood scandal, he wants to see criminal charges brought against the politicians and doctors involved.
“I’m not quite sure how they got away with some of the stuff 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 went around infecting people – people have been convicted for that. If you knowingly infected somebody with a death sentence, surely there should be something that they should be brought to book for,” he said.
Long would like to gain closure and see justice via a case for corporate manslaughter, similar to France.
“In this country, it just seems to be that the elite get away with whatever they want in different aspects. It won’t surprise me at all if it gets brushed under the carpet and these people are allowed to walk away. They knew what they were doing, there’s loads of evidence to prove that,” he said.
Long said that if criminal charges were not on the table next week, he would be “very angry” and would join a campaign to pressure for it.
His view is shared by Sue Harrison, 74, who was infected with Hepatitis C after she was tested for a blood clotting disorder that involved being injected with Factor VIII contaminated blood. She is also willing to campaign, and wants to see the media turn up the pressure for corporate manslaughter charges.
Harrison’s condition came to light in especially traumatic form: when she bought a dream retirement home in north Cyprus with her husband. In order to obtain temporary residency, she needed a blood test. It was only when police seized her passport and told her she would be deported as an “undesirable immigrant” that she learned she had been infected.
“I went into shock,” she recalled. “It knocked me sideways, I’ve been a teacher all my life, a positive member of society and because I’ve got Hep C I was no longer desirable to anybody because of the stigma.”
The disease had other repercussions on her life: she sold her “beautiful home” to get a cheaper mortgage so she could reduce her hours and subsequently take early retirement to cope with the symptoms.
“There are people who should go to court for corporate manslaughter, there’s no doubt about it. There won’t be that many now because people have died, but the amount of evidence coming out from the inquiry – and we’ll know a lot more on Monday – shows that with no doubt whatsoever,” Harrison said.
She added: “I would like people to be named and to accept culpability and stand up and admit they were wrong and actually apologise.
“If you think, I’m still here … but how many people have lost husbands, lovers, parents have lost children, children have lost parents, siblings lost … who can never be replaced … because somebody was trying to save money.
“I’m going to use this awful word – closure. For a lot of people that is what matters. It’s not about the money.”
