After a nine-year inquiry and an emotional trial that heard from more than 600 witnesses, Juan Maeso was found guilty yesterday of injecting himself with morphine and then using the same syringe to sedate patients at four Valencia hospitals from 1988 to 1997.
He was sentenced to seven years' prison for each infected patient plus eight years for the four people who died of the virus. Under Spanish law, Mr Maeso can serve a maximum of 20 years. He was ordered to pay €1m (£685,000) in compensation. Mr Maeso told the court: "I have not been, am not, nor will be a drug addict."
Amparo González, of the Association of Patients Infected with Hepatitis C, said: "What happens now? The patients are still living with a virus, receiving treatments with terrible side-effects, fighting to survive."
Francisco Davo, Mr Maeso's lawyer, said he would appeal to the supreme court, claiming that evidence from genetic tests was incomplete and the three judges faced "social pressure" for a guilty verdict.
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