Breast butcher Ian Paterson did 'sales job' on victim who died after surgery

The partner of a woman who died from breast cancer after having surgery by a rogue doctor says they were given a sales patter before agreeing to have a controversial operation.

Young mum Chloe Nikitas died after having a clevage sparing masetectomy carried out by Ian Paterson, when her cancer came back in her reconstructed breast. Her partener of 18 years Klaus Stroehle said: "It was almost like a sales job, this is the latest new thing that i have developed and there's nothing to be worried about , it's going to be great."

Paterson, who subjected more than 1,000 patients to unnecessary and damaging operations over 14 years, is serving a 20 year jail sentence. More than 560 patient deaths have been considered so far by a multi-disciplinary team of medical experts, leading to the opening of 62 inquests.

The full inquest began on last Monday, with background medical evidence heard and today the first inquest begins. Today the death of 43-year-old Chloe Nikitas, an environmental consultant from Tamworth who died at the Priory Hospital in Birmingham on April 13 2008, was investigated.

Paying tribute to his former partner, Mr Strohle described her as a “beautiful, petite and smart woman”. He said she graduated with a first-class degree in chemistry from the University of East Anglia and later worked in Germany. Mr Strohle added: “She was always driven in her actions and had a strong sense of right and wrong. She was never afraid to speak her mind and cared about other people. she enriched the lives of the people around her”

Paterson, then a consultant, was employed by the the Heart of England Foundation Trust and practised in the independent sector at Spire Parkway and Spire Little Aston, all in Birmingham, between 1997 and 2011. He thought he was a pioneer and performed unregulated "cleavage-sparing" mastectomies, leaving cancerous tissue behind, which led to the recurrence of the disease in many patients.

He advised numerous patients that they had pre-cancerous lumps, leading to unnecessary surgeries that caused both physical and mental scarring. He also carried out unnecessary surgery for various veins, hernias and several other medical procedures. After his trial, a review was carried out and in 2020 recommendations were made to prevent surgeons being able to carry out unregulated and unnecessary operations, but those have still not been implemented.

The independent inquiry ruled that he had carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on hundreds of patients, exaggerating or inventing cancer risks. In 2017 the surgeon was jailed for 17 counts of wounding people with intent. He was jailed for 20 years and remains behind bars.

A woman whose sister died after being operated on twice by butcher surgeon Ian Paterson has said she wants to see him sentenced to more time behind bars. Shirley Moroney's 49-year-old sister Marie Pinfeld died from cancer in October 2008, after delays in her treatment caused by Paterson. Shirley is attending the 11-month long inquest into the death of Marie and 61 other women who were his patients.

Shirley, 61, told the : "I hope he perjures himself. It is quite clear that people have died an unnatural death, then it's down to the DPP to lay charges, the police will have all the evidence and statements. He is going to be out in 2027 and I want him to serve more time.

"The worst thing about it, is this is still just the tip of the iceberg, there are still so many people that were harmed by him and they will never have their day in court. If we can get him more time in prison I will be a very happy woman and that's my main aim in all this. He stole my sister."

Shirley's sister Marie, who was a child protection officer with and was due to retire, had spoken about buying a campervan and going on adventures with her little dog. But Shirley says Paterson robbed her of her future. Marie met him when she diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2006. She was booked in for a double mastectomy after she decided she wanted to give herself the best chance of the disease not returning.

But rogue surgeon Paterson gave Marie what he thought was a "pioneering technique" of a cleavage sparing mastectomy, taking the minimal amount of breast tissue and leaving her with "two lumps of fatty tissue" instead of the flat chest she expected. Shirley says her sister was devastated but Paterson thought what he had done was "f**king fantastic".

The pair demanded a second operation to correct the work, but she was still left without a flat chest. The subsequent delay to chemotherapy and radiotherapy meant she developed secondary cancer in her lung and died in October 2008. Heart of England NHS Trust admitted the second operation would not have been necessary if the double mastectomy had been carried out properly. An independent report found Marie could have lived for 10 more years had she received the right initial treatment.