The head of the UK’s Haemophilia Doctor’s Organisation told public health chiefs that a medic convicted of lying about HIV-infected blood was a man of “high integrity”.
Dr Christopher Ludlam said Dr Jean-Pierre Allain should keep his job in a letter to the head of the UK National Blood Authority.
It came after the Frenchman, who was director of the East Anglian Regional Blood Transfusion Service, was convicted.
Dr Ludlam’s actions will be probed at the inquiry into 1,243 people who were infected with HIV through the Factor VIII blood product in the UK in the 1980s.
Lawyer Des Collins, helping to represent 1,400 people, called Dr Ludlam’s actions “outrageous”.
Dr Allain was jailed in 1992 and the letter was released under FOI laws from NHS Lothian, where Dr Ludlam was a consultant.
Tony Farrugia, 48, who lost his father in the scandal, said: “Ludlam is going to have a lot to answer for.”
The Department for Health did not comment.
