Surgeon: women didn't want 'frightening' breast op details

The convicted breast surgeon Ian Paterson said he did not tell women if he was going to perform a cleavage sparing mastectomy on them as "it was frightening and they didn't need to or want to know".

- Jessica Murray

Giving evidence for the first time at an inquest into the deaths of 62 of his former patients, Paterson said he considered the procedure an "adaptation of a standard operation" which did not require separate consent.

After previously refusing to give evidence, Paterson spoke yesterday at the inquest of Elaine Turbill, who died aged 63 in 2017 when her cancer returned after undergoing a mastectomy carried out by Paterson in 2005.