Breast surgeon Ian Paterson found guilty of 17 counts of wounding

Breast surgeon Ian Paterson has been found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent after being accused of carrying out a series of

unnecessary operations.

The 59-year-old denied all the charges, meaning the victims – nine women and a man – had their stories put under forensic examination at Nottingham Crown Court.

They included a mother who was said to have agreed to two "unnecessary" operations, leaving her unable to breastfeed, and a woman who had a "significant deformity in her visible cleavage area" after a pair of needless operations on her left breast.

One told the court the surgeon, also convicted of three counts of unlawful wounding, had "ruined my life".

Paterson sobbed as the foreman of the jury returned the guilty verdicts, as did his daughter Emily, who was also in court.

The Scottish-born surgeon was suspended by the General Medical Council that same year amid claims he carried out so-called cleavage-sparing mastectomies (CSMs) which led to the recall of more than 700 patients.

He was accused of causing grievous bodily harm to patients and lying to his victims, "exaggerating or quite simply inventing risk of cancer," and claiming payments for more expensive procedures.

A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association revealed that 68 women who underwent a CSM— in which part of the breast was left for cosmetic reasons—by Paterson on the NHS had gone on to develop a recurrence of breast cancer.

Figures also revealed that the NHS has paid out nearly £18 million, of which £9.5 million was damages, following claims from nearly 800 patients of Paterson – a fact which the jury were not made aware of during proceedings.

Paterson's seven-week trial heard harrowing testimony from 10 patients treated in the private sector between 1997 and 2011 at the Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands.

The victims - nine women and one man - told the court they believed they were seriously ill after seeing Paterson, with one patient saying she was described as a "cancer ticking bomb" and another convinced she had cancer - rather than merely being at risk of developing it.

Others who suffered at his hands included Leanne Joseph, who is said to have agreed to two "unnecessary operations", leaving her unable to breastfeed, after he told her it was a "small price to pay for her life".