Vic police raid Melbourne doctor`s home

Police are considering whether to lay criminal charges against a Melbourne doctor
believed to have infected at least 41 women with hepatitis C.
Investigators from a unit set up to investigate anaesthetist James Latham Peters
carried out morning raids on Saturday on four Melbourne properties, including his
suburban home and the late-term abortion clinic at Croydon where he used to work.
It also emerged on Saturday that the number of women given an anaesthetic by Dr
Peters who had the same strain of the potentially fatal disease he is infected with
had risen to at least 41.
Police seized a computer and documents from the 62-year-old suspended doctor's
Hawthorn home, the clinic and the homes of its managers, raising the possibility
they may also face charges.
Senior Sergeant Paul Robotham, who is part of Operation Clays, said Dr Peters was
home when police arrived, but would not say whether criminal charges would be laid
or against whom.
"Today we were looking for evidence pertaining to the circumstances surrounding how
this outbreak has occurred," he told reporters.
"A number related to the persons associated with the management of the surgery ...
at this stage we're keeping an open mind, it's an ongoing investigation and there
are a number of possibilities that we have to exhaust."
The affected women were exposed to Dr Peters between January 2008 and December 2009.
The case is unprecedented in Victoria, presenting challenges for police working out
if and how to lay charges related to spreading a disease and for the Department of
Health in working out how many patients are affected.
Police will not say if they believe Dr Peters deliberately infected the women and
how, with most hepatitis C cases in Australia involving injecting drug users.
Law firm Slater and Gordon is representing more than 50 women - including at least
30 infected with hepatitis C - who are demanding compensation from the clinic
(formerly the Croydon Day Surgery, now called Marie Stopes International Maroondah),
Dr Peters and possibly the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria for allowing him
to practise unsupervised.
Dr Peters, a widower and father of two teenage children, has a history of drug abuse
and received a suspended jail sentence in 1996 for writing about 100 stolen
pethidine prescriptions for himself and his late wife, Julia.
He was charged last year with possessing child pornography.
Since news of the cluster broke this year, Victoria's Department of Health has
contacted more than 3000 women treated by Dr Peters at Croydon between 2006 and
2009, of whom 41 have a virus linked to the anaesthetist.
Many have become extremely ill with the disease's symptoms.
The state's chief health officer, Dr John Carnie, said there were another 300
patients treated at the clinic that his staff were still trying to find, but they
were nearing the end of the process.
They have also contacted a smaller number of patients Dr Peters had treated at other
clinics, but so far none was affected, Dr Carnie said.
"The department is concentrating on the public health aspects, which is to try and
find every patient who's been treated by this doctor during that risk period," he
told reporters.
"This is certainly a much bigger undertaking than we have had to go into in the past
number of years, this is something that's been extremely distressing for everybody
concerned."