Doctors acquitted in Canada tainted-blood trial

By Cameron French

TORONTO (Reuters) - Three former Canadian health officials and a U.S. pharmaceutical company were acquitted of criminal charges on Monday following a tainted-blood scandal in which thousands of Canadians contracted HIV and hepatitis C from blood transfusions.

Roger Perrault, a former director of the Canadian Red Cross, and the others had each been accused of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and commission of a common nuisance after thousands of hemophilia patients were given tainted blood products in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tens of thousands of transfusion recipients in Canada contracted HIV and hepatitis C.

In her ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto said the events under consideration constituted a "disaster." But she said that the evidence showed neither wanton disregard for public safety nor a departure from the standards of a reasonable person, which must be proven for a finding of guilt.

"The allegations of criminal conduct on the part of these men and this corporation were not only unsupported by the evidence, they were disproved," she said in reading her ruling to a packed courthouse.

"The events here were tragic. However, to assign blame where none exists is to compound the tragedy," the judge said.

Also found not guilty were former Canadian health officials Donald Wark Boucher and John Furesz, along with New Jersey drug company Armour Pharmaceutical, and its former vice-president, Michael Rodell. Armour supplied the blood-clotting agent H.T. Factorate.

Activists who had hoped for a guilty verdict responded angrily to the decision.

"What's been suggested here today is that the behavior of the gentlemen involved and the company involved should somehow be lauded, that they were doing a wonderful job," said John Plater of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, addressing reporters outside the court.

He said evidence showed that Armour was aware of problems with H.T. Factorate.

"If you on the one hand have a study that says there's a problem, and then on the other hand have a study that says maybe there isn't problem, any reasonable person takes the product off the market," Plater said.

"They didn't. People were infected, and people died."

The charges were initially brought by Canadian police in 2002. In May 2005, the Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty to a violation of the Food and Drug Regulation Act and apologized to tens of thousands of infected patients.

Last July, the federal government said it would pay more than C$1 billion ($1 billion) to about 5,500 people who had contracted hepatitis C from transfusions and who were excluded from an earlier compensation plan.

Perrault still faces separate criminal charges related to allegations that the Red Cross didn't take adequate measures to screen blood donors.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)