Breast surgeon is convicted of 20 counts of unlawful wounding and wounding with intent

The rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson, believed to have carried out negligent or unnecessary surgery on more than 1000 women, has been convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and three counts of unlawful wounding.

Paterson, 59, who worked mainly at Solihull Hospital in the West Midlands, sobbed quietly as the verdicts were announced at Nottingham Crown Court and faces sentencing at the end of May. The maximum sentence for wounding with intent is life imprisonment.

The charges related to just 10 of his private patients, including one man. All underwent breast surgery that, prosecutors said, “no reasonable surgeon at the time would have considered …