The Lindsay Tribunal has heard that important records of the Blood Transfusion Service covering 20 years were shredded in 1993 on the orders of Sean Hanratty, its Chief Technical Officer. Dr Emer Lawlor, Deputy Medical Director of the Service, who made the disclosure, said that it was a very unfortunate development, as the documents were the only way to establish which blood products had been sent to hospitals.
Yesterday, the Lindsay Tribunal was informed that all of the BTS dispatch records up to 1986 had been destroyed in 1995. Today, Dr Lawlor clarified her remarks by stating that destruction had actually taken place in 1993, but disclosed that it was on the orders of Sean Hanratty, then BTS Chief Technical Officer. She said that the equivalent records in the BTS Cork office were not destroyed, and would be available to the Tribunal.
Dr Lawlor told the Tribunal that the destruction took place after litigation against the BTS taken by haemophiliacs infected with HIV had been terminated following a settlement. However, John Trainor, Senior Counsel for the Haemophilia Society, put it to Dr Lawlor that the destruction had taken place just as another body of litigation had begun against drug companies.
Tribunal Chair, Judge Alison Lindsay, ruled that Mr Trainor was being "unfair" when he suggested to Dr Lawlor that the destruction of the documents would have aided the defence of the drug companies. Dr Lawlor agreed with Mr Trainor that a circular had been sent around the BTS by its Chief Executive Mr Keyes in 1989, ordering that no documents be destroyed because of the upcoming litigation.
