Friday January 18, 2008 www.guardian.co.uk - Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against the former head of the Canadian Red Cross on Friday, clearing him of responsibility in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands with HIV or hepatitis and left more than 3,000 dead.
Prosecutors from the Ontario Supreme Court withdrew all six charges against Dr. Roger Perrault for lack of evidence.
``There no longer remains a reasonable prospect of conviction in this case,'' prosecutor John Pearson said after a review of the case.
Perrault's lawyer Eddie Greenspan said his client should never have been charged. ``Not every tragedy requires a scapegoat,'' he said.
Perrault had faced nuisance charges for allegedly failing to employ his legal duty and endangering the lives, safety, and health of the public. The charges stemmed from allegations that the Red Cross and its senior officials failed to take adequate measures to screen blood donors.
Perrault was previously found not guilty of criminal negligence in connection with the scandal, which roiled Canada's health care system and forced the government to pay $1 billion in compensation settlements.
The case involved blood products produced by New Jersey-based Armour Pharmaceutical Co. in the 1980s and early 1990s that turned out to be infected and were blamed for tainting Canada's blood supply.
Three other doctors were found not guilty in October of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
John Plater of the Canadian Hemophilia Society said he was extremely disappointed in the decision to withdraw the charges.
``There are a lot of people out there that are hurting as a result of what happened,'' he said. ``They are going to walk away from this very confused, very upset with a lot of questions and it's going to generate a lot of anger.''
The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty in 2005 to distributing blood tainted with HIV and hepatitis C and was fined $5,000. The Red Cross apologized and dedicated $1.5 million to a scholarship fund and research project aimed at reducing medical errors.
