Infected blood: Treloars students sue school over breach of care

Former students from a Hampshire boarding school where scores of pupils were infected with HIV and hepatitis, are relaunching legal proceedings over its duty of care.

More than 120 haemophiliac boys received infected blood at the Lord Mayor Treloar College in Alton during the 1970s and 80s.

At least 80 have since died as a result.

A lawsuit, alleging the school breached its duty of care while acting in loco parentis, was put on hold until the findings of Sir Brian Langstaff's five-year report were published.

Last week, he concluded that a 'catalogue of failures' at systemic, collective and individual levels led to the deaths of more than 3000 people, and a government cover up that compounded the trauma for victims and their families.

On Monday, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologised for a 'decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life.'

The report found children at the school were used as “objects for research” while the risks of contracting hepatitis and HIV were ignored.

Survivors, known as the Treloar’s boys, said in a joint statement that “there is nothing honourable about what happened” at the school, calling on former headmaster Alexander Macpherson to “do the right thing” and return his OBE.

Mr Macpherson was headmaster from 1974 to 1990.

Steve Nicholls, 57, from Farnham, Surrey, who attended the school between 1976 and 1983, said: “We fully accept that Treloar’s is a unique case.

“We have been referred to as the darkest chapter within the Infected Blood Inquiry and for us to get recognition and justice for all the haemophiliac boys and their families we feel it is necessary to pursue it through the courts now.”

On Mr Macpherson, he added: “Someone has to take accountability, it happened on his watch, he was responsible for his staff and the wellbeing of his pupils.

“Our parents handed over the care of us, their children, giving Treloar’s full loco parentis of their child and they chose to withhold very important information that could have saved their son’s lives.

“That was a choice…they knew what they were doing, they chose to not contact those parents and give those parents a choice of the treatment and keep them fully up to speed of what was actually going on behind those four walls.”

On that legal action, Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors which represents the claimants, said: “It’s the deliberate killing of 70 or 80 pupils, which you can only say quickly because it’s so horrendous if you actually dwell on the words.”

In a statement on Monday, the College said:

“The Inquiry’s report shows the full extent of this horrifying national scandal. We are devastated that some of our former pupils were so tragically affected and hope that the findings provide some solace for them and their families.

“The report lays bare the systemic failure at the heart of the scandal. Whilst today is about understanding how and why people were given infected blood products in the 1970s and 80s, it is absolutely right that the Government has committed to establishing a proper compensation scheme. This must happen urgently after such a long wait.

“On a recent visit to the School and College, our former students highlighted the need for a more public and accessible memorial to ensure the lives of all those impacted are remembered.

"This is a key recommendation of the report and something which we are absolutely committed to exploring with them.

“We’ll now be taking the time to reflect on the report’s wider recommendations.”