Indian-origin Surgeon Sentenced to Seven Years for Killing, Maiming Patients

For killing three patients and maiming a fourth, Indian surgeon Jayant Patel has been awarded a seven year term by a Queensland court, said media reports.

The Queens Supreme Court handed down the punishment after a jury found Patel, 60, guilty of three counts of manslaughter and one count of grievous bodily harm, reports said.

The charges of killing and maiming stem from his tenure as director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital, in southeast Queensland, between 2003 and 2005.

The surgeon had pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

During sentencing submissions, prosecutor Ross Martin SC called for Patel to be given a jail term of ‘well over 10 years’, with the head sentence reduced by six months for time already spent in custody in the United States, said reports.

Patel’s counsel Michael Byrne QC, however, said that a more appropriate sentence would be between four and five years in prison, but argued that it should be either wholly suspended or suspended after a short time served in jail, reports said.

Patel was convicted of the manslaughter of Mervyn Morris, Gerardus Kemps and James Phillips, and of causing grievous bodily harm to Ian Vowles.