Ian Paterson trial: 'Monster' breast cancer doctor robbed me of newborn feeding joy

Leanne Joseph, aged 36, was robbed of the ability to breastfeed her child by the 59-year-old who carried out botched, or unnecessary operations, on hundreds, perhaps thousands of victims over 15 years.

He was convicted last week, following a Nottingham Crown Court trial, of wounding 10 patients after conning them into allowing him to operate on them. He will be sentenced at a later date.

The doctor exaggerated or invented the cancer risk to convince them to have surgery at two private hospitals and make money for him.

His exploits left the NHS to pick up a £18m costs and compensation bill. Paterson knew Mrs Joseph was planning to have a family but still persuaded her to have needless surgery to remove her milk ducts to 'save her life.' When this failed and she began producing milk while pregnant, he callously prescribed drugs to stop her lactating and hide his error.

Eight years later the mother of one who lives in Cheslyn Hay with husband Mark, a 45-year-old IT manager and their child Ruby, said of the surgeon: "He is a monster who has destroyed my life.

"The mental scars are far worse than the physical. I changed the day I had Ruby. I used to be carefree and fun and I feel sad that she will never know what I was like before. I always planned to have at least three children, but after what I went through with her I'll never do it again.

"Becoming a mother should have been the greatest experience of my life, but because of him, it was the worst.

"'I was on a maternity ward with five other women who were all breastfeeding and I kept on having to explain why I couldn't do it.

"I felt so inadequate. I felt I should not have brought a baby into the world knowing I could not give it the best start to life."

From this point on Leanne's life began to spiral out of control.

She suffered depression and developed obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD, which left her in constant fear of her child dying from germs.