Introducing... The Surgeon of St Helena

Summary

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Project Mind Control – Introducing... The Surgeon of St. Helena

Podcast: Always True Crime
Date: June 29, 2026
Host: Luke Jones

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Episode Overview

This introductory episode sets the scene for a dramatic deep-dive into a scandal on one of Britain’s most remote outposts—St. Helena. Hosted by journalist Luke Jones, the podcast investigates Dr. Sergio Villatoro Brann, an orthopedic surgeon whose years of unchecked medical practice left residents injured, maimed, and disabled. With survivor and investigator interviews, the show peels back layers of isolation, trust, and system failures, connecting St. Helena’s crisis to broader issues of oversight in remote territories.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Setting and Scandal’s Context

• Luke Jones’ Approach: The episode opens with Jones recounting his journey to the tiny South Atlantic island of St. Helena, a British Overseas Territory with just 4,000 residents. The remote location’s isolation sets the stage for the unraveling scandal.

  • “How did it happen? Who knew? And why are victims still fighting for justice years on?” (00:48)

• Precedent in Remote Territories: Reference to Jones’ previous series on Pitcairn, highlighting patterns of abuse, insularity, and lawlessness in isolated UK territories.

  • “On Pitcairn, the problem was homegrown… This story revolves around a stranger who tips up on a remote old volcano of an island.” (02:47–03:03)

2. Arrival of the Surgeon and Community Response

• Dr. Sergio Villatoro Brann’s Introduction: Arriving in 2016, touted as a skilled orthopedic surgeon with international credentials, initially welcomed due to the island's dire need for specialist care.

  • “It’s very important to have an orthopedic surgeon on St. Helena, as I’m able to treat patients now rather than have them wait a long time…” (16:44)

• Early Red Flags: Accounts from locals and expats reveal unease:

  • Catherine, Human Rights Commission head, describes Sergio as “very brusque” and self-absorbed. Socially, he was “in your face” and inappropriately showy (“He wore Lycra all the time and it was fairly obvious and quite embarrassing what he was trying to show off.” [19:38])
  • Unsettling nicknames: “Bone man” and “Anaconda.” (20:00–20:13)

3. Patterns of Harm and Cover-Up

• Personal Testimonies:

  • Catherine’s daughter-in-law suffered unexpected major scars and permanent loss of mobility after supposedly minor knee surgery. (20:27–21:45)
  • Multiple similar complaints, with hospital management dismissive of patient concerns.

• Suppressed Whistleblowing:

  • Physiotherapists and staff report being told to back off concerns about Sergio bypassing pre-surgical referrals and performing excessive and inappropriate surgeries.
  • “They were actively being put off... senior management didn’t want to be told that Sergio was a problem.” (23:01–23:22)

4. Escalation and Investigation

• Suspension and Criminal Activity:

  • Sergio suspended in Feb 2021. While under investigation, he illegally obtained Botox for personal use, later claiming it was for a sports injury, resulting in criminal charges and a fine (£2,100). (24:38–24:51)

• External Investigation:

  • Bernard and Sandra McCabe, retired London police, are called in to collect statements from approximately 50 potential victims out of the estimated 600 operated on (15% of the island’s population—an extraordinarily high rate).
    • “If this was in the UK… people would be in uproar about it and they would want action taken. But over there… victims all felt that, oh, they just… whatever Sergio had advised them… it must be right.” (29:12–30:09)

• Damning Findings:

  • UK surgical consultant reviews cases: terms Sergio “poorly trained” with “suboptimal” results, describes his actions as “squarely in the realms of criminality.” (25:26–26:14)

5. Shocking Cases and Systemic Failure

• Case Study:

  • Sergio prepares to cut open a child’s foot just to see what kind of screwdriver he needed, before actual surgery—a sign of reckless disregard. (27:10–27:44)
  • Maintained photos of patient’s fingers he claimed to have discarded, raising questions about honesty and ethics. (27:48–28:15)

• God Complex Allegations:

  • Bernard: “My opinion was that Sergio appeared to have a God complex.” (28:24)

• Failings of Oversight:

  • Despite being on the island five years, no meaningful checks or reviews of Sergio’s work took place.
  • “I find it actually incredible that nobody… had some sort of balance in checks and… periodic review… just let him run. It begs belief…” (28:48)

6. Climax and Unresolved Tensions

• Police Action:
  • After interviewing patients, Sergio is finally arrested and questioned, providing only a prepared statement and “no comment” answers. He is bailed but rapidly arranges to leave the island, with officials warned not to interfere with his departure.
  • “He’s booked on a flight to go tomorrow. If anyone interferes with him getting on that flight, there will be repercussions.” (30:57)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sandra (on the surreal assignment):
  “Hold on a minute, two weeks ago we were just bimbling along doing Covid work locally and now we’re on a flight to some island that we’ve looked up…” (08:36)

• Catherine (on community impact):
  “It’s the most wonderful place to live if everything’s going ok.” (18:26)

• Bernard (on discovering Sergio’s methods):
  “He wanted to cut the patient’s foot just to check what actual screwdriver he needed…” (27:31)

• UK Consultant (on Sergio’s practice):
  “No, you were way, way, way past this… unscrupulous, squarely in the realms of criminality…” (25:49)

• Host’s Summary of Scale:
  “Should 15% of the population having orthopedic surgery in a short amount of time not have raised alarm bells?” (30:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:48] – Introduction to St. Helena scandal
• [03:03] – Establishing pattern with other remote territory abuses
• [16:44–17:31] – Dr. Sergio arrives, public image, credentials
• [17:37–20:18] – Locals’ first impressions: skepticism, showmanship, and nicknames
• [20:27–21:45] – Detailed patient story: knee surgery gone wrong
• [22:16–23:22] – Suppressed complaints and whistleblowing
• [24:38–25:05] – Botox theft and criminal charge
• [25:26–26:14] – UK consultant’s damning review
• [27:10–27:44] – Child’s surgery incident: reckless procedures
• [28:48–29:12] – Systemic failure: five years of unchecked practice
• [30:09–30:57] – Scale of harm; arrest and Sergio’s planned departure

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Tone and Atmosphere

The language is sharp, incredulous, and investigative, with moments of dry British humor (e.g., references to Lycra, “Anaconda,” and failed airport engineering). Interviewees express outrage, disbelief, and sorrow, underlining the gravity and emotional impact of the scandal. Host Luke Jones maintains a measured, persistent probing style that invites listeners to share in his sense of incredulity and mission to expose forgotten injustices.

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Conclusion

This powerful opening episode foreshadows further revelations about medical malpractice, systemic neglect, and the vulnerability of isolated communities. By threading personal narratives with investigative detail, “The Surgeon of St. Helena” promises a compelling examination of justice and accountability in the world’s forgotten corners.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Always True Crime, a podcast network bringing you gripping real life stories that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Discover your next true crime obsession@always truecrime.com hello, I'm journalist Luke Jones. I want to introduce you to my next true crime series that might have you gripped. I've been working with a team behind Project Mind Control to investigate a surgeon who went rogue on one of Britain's most remote islands. Island I traveled all the way to St. Helena, a tiny British island in the middle of the South Atlantic, home to just 4,000 people. And there, many residents tell us they were left injured, maimed or disabled after a surgeon arrived to help the community, but instead left a trail of devastation. How did it happen? Who knew? And why are victims still fighting for justice years on? Here's episode one. Search for the surgeon of St. Helena to hear the full series. They did the damage to him, you know, and make our life more harder

[B]

than it used to be.

[A]

My first thought was, well, how did he get away with it for so long?

[C]

I feel that we're so obviously right

[B]

and this situation is so obviously wrong.

[C]

We'll either win this or I'll die trying.

[A]

The first series in this feed was called the Pitcairn Trials. It was all about a very, very small, very, very remote British island in the South Pacific called Pitcairn. We told the story of a police officer who went out there in the late 90s and slowly uncovered widespread child sexual abuse. It was a scandal and a crisis and a series of very tricky criminal prosecutions that brought the island right to the edge of extinction. But that is a scandal very much in the past. In the wake of releasing that series, though, lots of people got in touch with me, with their own experiences, other stories about other communities. One particular email really struck me, though. I remember the subject line, more outrageous scandal. An email read. Dear Luke, I listened with an ever increasing sense of familiarity and horror to your podcast, the Pitcairn Trials. I'm sorry to say that I know another story of extremely familiar themes that are occurring as I write, on another British overseas territory, which similarly and very unfortunately has its roots and cause firmly founded in a shameful past and a coercive present. Well, I thought that needs investigating. On Pitcairn, the problem was homegrown.

[D]

He just struck me as a kind

[A]

of Walter Mitty character. This story revolves around a stranger who tips up on a remote old volcano of an island. I thought he was okay. Yeah, he's not. Professionally, yes, he's not yet. Can't be, you know what he's doing. A very trusting, isolated community accepts him but ends up seriously harmed.

[C]

If this was in the uk, people would be in uproar about it and they would want action taken.

[A]

But over there and how the mess is handled really shocked me. From audio always. And me. Luke Jones. This is the surgeon of St. Helena.

[D]

I'm Bernard McCabe. I'm a retired detective, formerly for the Metropolitan police.

[C]

I'm Sandra McCabe, his wife. I was a Metropolitan Police Officer, retired many years ago from that and now living in Essex.

[A]

When was it you were both in St. Helena?

[D]

It was in November 2021 until about March 2022. I was aware that a former colleague of mine from the Met had taken a career break and had gone out there to work as a police officer.

[A]

This is increasingly my journalistic niche. English coppers getting calls out of the blue about far flung islands in need of some investigative hefty, if that is, you do get in touch.

[D]

So I knew he was out there, but I'd had no contact with him for the period that he'd been out there to start with. And then he made contact with me in October of 2021, out of the blue, just a phone call out of the blue, saying, oh, how are you? How's things going? What are you up to? I said, yeah, just ticking along. And he said, oh, I know this sounds strange, can I run something by you? So he said that there'd been this investigation, as it were, had come to light from the General Hospital, Jamestown.

[A]

Jamestown is the capital city and it is a city, albeit very small, of St Helena, like Pitcairn, St Helena is British soil and its people are British citizens.

[D]

I was aware of it only because that's where, to my knowledge, they'd sent Napoleon in exile and he died there. And that was the extent of it geographically. I wouldn't have had no idea where it was at all. So that was the sum total of my knowledge.

[A]

Get yourself a map, find the South Atlantic and pop your finger right in the middle. That is broadly where St. Helena is. Pitcairn is teeny tiny. St. Helena maybe would class as just very small. It is twice the size of Manhattan island in New York City, but with a population of around just 4,000. So you could pop them all in London's Royal Albert hall and still have about 1200 seats going spare as you

[C]

actually come into land. It's a bit like a lunar landscape.

[A]

It is remote as well. The nearest mainland is Angola, 1200 miles away to the east. Or you could head 800 miles to the north to the nearest other island, Ascension, which is also British, for what it's worth. But more on that later. But why is this Atlantic lump of dried dead volcano actually British? Because of the East India Company, the world's first global corporate superpower. A brutal and rapacious force which had its own navy, army and British Royal Seal of approval. In the 17th century, before the Suez Canal opened, St. Helena was a very useful stopping off point for their ships. But the East India Company is no more, with Amazon prime now. And St. Helena is a fragment of empire, a tropical British overseas territory still ultimately controlled by drizzly London. Back in 2021, what was it that had dragged Bernard and Sandra out of retirement?

[D]

The local police, being very small in number, didn't have the resources to take on that investigation. And therefore would I be interested in perhaps going out to assist in taking statements from potential victims.

[A]

Bernard said he'd be up for it.

[C]

But Sandra, the day that Bernie took the call, he was out on his own and he came home to say, I've had this call. And it was like, what where?

[A]

It would be four months away from home and crucially would mean missing the first post Covid Christmas they'd be able to have with all their kids back together.

[C]

So we had to message and say, there's this opportunity, what's your thoughts? And of course they all said, oh no, you've got to, you've got to go for it.

[A]

You know, screw Christmas, they're off to the tropics.

[C]

We checked what the weather was like and read that it was a sort of subtropical, so it should be warmish.

[A]

Now, normally the flights would take you via Johannesburg and Namibia, but because of COVID flights were working a little differently. Bernard and Sandra went from Stansted, perfect close to where they live, six hours south to, to Accra, Ghana. Then after a refuel, they had another three hours over the vast, almost empty expanse of the Atlantic to St. Helena. You know what you were thinking on that flight?

[C]

It was just like, is this real? I think at that point we were still sort of in a bit of a daze, thinking, hold on a minute, two weeks ago we were just bimbling along doing Covid work locally and now we're on a flight to some island that we've looked up now and realize it's only something like seven miles long in the South Atlantic to do some work. That sounds very interesting, but still unsure of what to expect.

[A]

The island might be green and pleasant inland, but around its Steep and jagged edges. It is so clear that it is essentially an old volcano.

[C]

So certainly as we came in, we, we were thinking, wow, it's sort of, it looked like a moonscape and you thought there was no civilization there. And it's quite, I think it's a short Runway, isn't it? Because I know they have problems with, sometimes with the wind, they have to allow a certain amount of time of fuel for them to fly back if they can't land, because it's certain conditions and certain planes and certain pilots that can only land there.

[A]

Now, the airport Bernard and Sandra land on is relatively new. Previously, the only way on or off the island was catching the Royal mail ship, the RMS St. Helena. Every three weeks or so it would arrive at the island having sailed for five, five days from Cape Town. But in 2015, after many, many years of consultations, design of shifting off big hunks of volcanic rock and shipping in concrete and steel and cranes and diggers and 300 million of Britain's finest pounds, they got a small but very smart looking international airport ready to connect the 4,000 people of St. Helena with the 8 billion people everywhere else. Well, I say ready. When the fresh and eye wateringly expensive Runway came to be tested in 2016, they realised that what with the Runway running along the edge of a steep cliff and what with the Atlantic being windy, the wind would often hit the cliff, roll up and over the side of the Runway, therefore making it incredibly difficult to actually land a plane. The first try, a British Airways test flight, took three goes before they managed to get the damn thing down. As the UK's National Audit Office would later point out, Charles Darwin noted the strong winds in the late 19th century. So how was it a surprise to the authorities in the early 21st century, the commercial operator who was going to run flights pulled out. So more money and more time was thrown at the problem. And, and basically the expensive upshot is that planes can now land, but not big ones, all the way from the uk. And the planes that do come have to stop off just before finally heading out across the Atlantic to St. Helena. Because if they get there and find they can't land, which they often can't because of the wind, they need enough fuel to turn around and get all the way back to the nearest mainland Africa. When Bernard and Sandra were successfully landing on St Helena, it was still that time when Covid was playing absolute hell with flights and travel. And if you're Saint Helena, a small island of 4,000 people cut off from the world with Plenty of old and vulnerable people who need protecting. Covid was a big worry.

[D]

We were getting off the plane and they were all in what I would describe as sort of the forensic suit that I would have.

[A]

Like a hazmat suit.

[D]

Well, yeah, yeah. Masks, the whole lot. And so, you know, it was very disciplined. Please go this way, go that way. Don't do this, don't do that. And so we were putting on a minibus and we were taken to the military. I'm trying to think of the name of the camp. Didn't we go there on the way before?

[C]

Yeah, because we had to be tested, didn't we? I forgot that. Yeah. So it's just near the airport.

[A]

They were tested for Covid, passed thankfully and were packed off in a minibus.

[C]

Once you've driven out from the airport through the island, the, the landscape changed totally and you're through lush vegetation and it was much more tropical and it was. And. And again it was all the, the deep valleys and everything that you had no idea that would. It would be like. So it was. Yeah, it was very interesting. The drive through.

[A]

They had to isolate for 10 days in a small house called the Old Schoolhouse. Meals were dropped on their doorstep and they were checked on so they would

[D]

ring us once a day and we had to present ourselves at the front door for a visit so that they could physically see us every day for 10 days.

[C]

And also we had. It was all taped off. It was quite. We had to send pictures back to the kids, obviously because it was quarantine and no leaving.

[A]

They didn't have television. They did have Internet, but it was too slow to really stream anything. All they had was board games and the radio

[C]

so we could listen to South Atlantic broadcasts and learn about the potato crop in things like that.

[D]

Some of the topics that were brought up on the 6 o' clock news were things like Sandra says the potato crop is due to be good. And then we also learned, probably not in the 10 days but over the period we were there, that the. The ship coming in from Cape Town was a big event on the island because it brought in fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, more food and. And that would be announced as well.

[A]

Jamestown, which was created as a city by Queen Victoria, does not look like a city. Picture instead a bare rocky valley with steep sides and a strip of town running all the way along the bottom. The high street has rows of pastel colored facades, some with balconies and metal balustrades. One of them has a small statue of Napoleon looking out the island's most famous visitor before I went, obviously, there's the castle where government is based and a big courthouse.

[C]

We had to go to the courthouse and be sworn in as detective constables in the St Helena Police Force and get our warrant cards. And that was done by the chief magistrate, Mr. Cook. Yeah, so that's a bit weird. We did have to pose outside by the cannons with our warrant cards.

[D]

Yeah. For a photo. Yeah.

[C]

For our own memory.

[D]

It wasn't sort of an official one.

[A]

They were there to investigate what had been happening up the road at Jamestown's hospital a few years earlier in 2016. So just as the new airport was having a mayor, the hospital excitedly welcomed a new surgeon, Dr. Sergio Villatoro Brann. He'd already visited a couple of times from his native Guatemala to do some stints as an orthopaedic surgeon, something he trained for, he said, in Guatemala, but also in the United States. He's one of those people who posts photographs on his Instagram with framed medical qualifications looming on the wall behind him. In one of them, you can see, sitting at a desk, white doctor's coat on, his name stitched into the breast pocket, and his small, tanned, shiny, bald head and the kind of sharp, defined eyes that look naturally eyeliner'd. Now, if the lab coat and the Guatemala medical certificates didn't scream doctor enough, he's also got a collection of knee joint models on the desk in front of him as well. He came to the island to join a fellow Guatemalan, Dr. Carlos Soto, St. Helena's chief medical officer. They were thought to be friends, and in the long, breathless press release announcing Sergio's arrival, he's quoted as saying, I shan't do the accent. It's very important to have an orthopaedic surgeon on St. Helena, as I'm able to treat patients now rather than have them wait a long time to be sent to South Africa for necessary procedures. On his previous visits to the island, the press release said he'd already done 572 consultations, 66 surgeries. He said, quote, it's a great opportunity for me to be able to provide and keep providing this service to the population of St. Helena, adding, quote, I've been able to restore the quality of life for some patients and I'm honoured to be able to get to know the island more. The government said he'd be on trauma call 24 7, do four surgeries a week, see 16 patients a day, which all sounds promising. What did you make of him, Sergio?

[C]

At that time, I thought he Knew, you know, he came across as a person who knew what they were talking about.

[A]

But the superstar surgeon wasn't charming everyone.

[B]

My impression of him was that he was, he was very brusque.

[A]

Catherine has lived on St. Helena for more than 20 years.

[B]

We came out on a three year contract, totally and utterly fell in love with the. I mean, it's a stunningly beautiful place, but also it's a very safe place.

[A]

Catherine, her husband and her two young children swapped Hertfordshire for St Helena because she said they were sick of crime and English commutes.

[B]

When we first came, we lived right out to the far side of the island, as far away from town as you can get. It was a 20 minute drive.

[A]

She enjoyed it so much. The family have barely left.

[B]

My husband and my youngest son haven't been off the island since 2006. My last time off was 2016. It is beautiful. I mean, it's a stunningly beautiful place. The people are as friendly as everybody says it is. The most wonderful place to live if everything's going ok. Catherine runs the Human

[A]

Rights Commission on the island, so was very used to kicking up a fuss if needs be. And she soon crossed paths with Dr. Sergio.

[B]

I knew him more socially and even then not that well, but he was like that socially as well. He was here with somebody that he always referred to as his wife. Lovely lady, knew her better than him. And it was only after they went away on holiday and she didn't come back did it become apparent she wasn't his wife. He was a bit of a show off.

[A]

In what way, a show off?

[B]

Yeah, I'm going to.

[A]

I ended up hearing this story from so many people on St. Helena. None of them wanted to say it, but all of them did.

[B]

He was known as the Bone man and not just because he did operations on people's bones. He wore Lycra all the time and it was fairly obvious and quite embarrassing

[A]

what he was trying to show off.

[B]

Yes. Yeah.

[A]

Which is sort. Which is grim.

[B]

It is. I mean, it's not nice for anybody.

[A]

Some told us he was known as the Bone man. Others have said he was known as the Anaconda. All describe a man who was in love with himself and who showed himself off to an uncomfortable degree.

[B]

He was just very much in your face, I think, if I can put it like that.

[A]

And Catherine was not impressed with him, which isn't something that matters too much. Until that is, her daughter in law ends up being one of his patients.

[B]

She's a very sporty girl, she's From Botswana. She swam for Botswana. She played hockey at national level for Botswana as well.

[A]

She went in for a keyhole knee operation.

[B]

He would not answer questions, he didn't give you an opportunity to ask questions.

[A]

The surgery was, in the grand scheme of things, quite routine, a tweak to the knee to keep her as active as she's always been. But when she came round it was immediately clear something was up.

[B]

When she woke up, she phoned me because I was at work sobbing down the phone that she got huge amounts of stitches and she didn't understand what had gone on and she couldn't work out. I thought maybe she'd had a reaction to the anesthetic but I went up anyway because obviously she needed somebody with

[A]

her and for a keyhole surgery you'd be expecting like just a one little sort of.

[B]

Yeah, a little cross stitch when she, she removed the bandage because she couldn't understand why she got such a huge bandage on and why she was in so much pain. And when we looked, she had two huge scars down her knee with loads

[A]

of stitches in her sporty, athletic, swimming, yoga teaching, daughter in law now falls down the stairs because her knee gives way. She struggles to do work.

[B]

She can no longer teach the higher strength, more impactful yoga. It just isn't physically possible for her to keep getting up and down, which I can understand at my age, but not at all.

[A]

Was her daughter in law a one off, an anomaly or as Catherine suspected, very much not. Amongst all the human rights advocacy she was doing, she started to get a lot of people worried about Dr. Sergio.

[B]

So that was that. And then we started getting more and more people coming in saying that they were concerned because they weren't getting any better. We help them write complaints but nobody was listening and nobody was responding and they were all saying, oh, we've looked at the notes, everything was done properly.

[A]

She felt like she was getting nowhere. But behind the scenes, other people as well were also trying to raise big red flags and blow whistles about Dr. Sergio.

[D]

They weren't getting pre invasive referrals, so Sergio would just getting on with doing the invasive surgery.

[A]

Bernard tells me a physiotherapist at the hospital was particularly concerned.

[D]

They knew that percentage wise there should be referrals coming before invasive surgery and they weren't getting them. And then when they were looking into it, they were basically told, don't put your nose in. Sergio's in charge, he knows what he's doing. And they were actively being put off.

[A]

He remembers talking to one member of Hospital staff who said that they would raise a concern internally, but we were

[D]

then actively told, don't be using that method because it's causing too many problems. So effectively, the senior management didn't want to be told that Sergio was a problem.

[C]

Somewhere along the line, that must have been the initial trigger, that people then started to think, is there something we've got to look at?

[A]

The hospital higher ups finally listened and suspended Dr. Sergio from the hospital in early February. This is 2021, so five years into his residential stint, documents from the time serious concerns had been raised about his working practices, which is what you call an understatement. But even though he was suspended, Sergio headed back to the hospital. One day. He was at the drug dispensary, sidled up to a junior member of staff and asked them to give him a 100 milliliter vial of Botox. He said it was a prescription for a patient, but that was a lie. He made it out of the hospital with the Botox but didn't go unnoticed. Ironically, for Botox, the incident raised quite a few eyebrows and the police got involved. He was eventually charged with obtaining property by deception, pleaded guilty and was fined 2,100 pounds. He told the court that it was for a sports injury to his thigh. But if that was true, why not just go and get it prescribed? Sandra, in particular wondered what the bone man was up to.

[C]

When we discussed it, thought, if it was for that reason, why would you need to steal it? But if you're using it for a more yes, off label, they might say, yes, yes, perhaps that's why.

[A]

So Sergio was suspended and disgraced and finally a disciplinary panel was convened to look at some of his work.

[D]

They decided that they would select 15, 17, whatever it was, cases that Sergio dealt with, anonymize them, put them in front of him and say, right, can you tell us what your rationale was?

[A]

A consultant from the UK was beamed into the meeting to add a professional surgical ear to what was going on. I managed to get a bit of a report that was compiled into this and the language is formal, but it's quite damning. Sergio's results were suboptimal. It said, poorly trained, poor diagnostic skills, interpretation of symptoms, inconsistent examination skills lacking.

[D]

The consultant from the UK basically said, no, you were way past, way, way, way past this. Just been too keen to operate. Or perhaps on the odd occasion, he's gone a little bit beyond, you know, when you're talking about consent. No, this is quite fairly unscrupulous, squarely in the realms of criminality and you need to immediately inform the police.

[A]

This was not a few mishaps. Something had happened here that went beyond someone just not being as good as they should be at their job. The hospital was a crime scene. People had been criminally wronged, which is where, fresh from isolation, Bernard and Sandra stepped in. So when you were free and then your immediate task was, what? Here's just a load of possible cases. Can you just go and take statements from them all? Is that what you had to do?

[D]

Yes, effectively, yes. So that there was. There was an outline off the top of my head. I think it was somewhere between 40 and 50 individuals that the scoping exercise had identified as those that would be of interest to get detailed statements from.

[A]

Bernard and Sandra weren't the first police to be called in. They were the second batch. To help with this growing caseload, their starting point was around 50 patients to interview. And it was immediately clear that Sergio was less a professional surgeon, more a cowboy builder.

[D]

And one of the youngest, I think, was a young child of about six or eight, that Sergio had conducted some sort of operation on the foot.

[A]

They needed surgery to adjust a metal plate that had previously been put in their foot.

[D]

Sergio was like, I've just got to do a quick invasive procedure.

[A]

This was ahead of the actual surgery, thankfully. The mum was like, sorry, what do you need to do?

[D]

He said, I've just got to check whether I need a Phillips or a flat screwdriver to remove the screws. He wanted to cut the patient's foot just to check what actual screwdriver he needed to remove it.

[A]

They also went through his phone.

[C]

We happened to come across a photograph where was a hand posed on a surface with little fingers lined up along the top edge of the hand.

[A]

The patient had lost the tips of his fingers in an accident, Dr. Sergio said it was too late to reattach them, so had thrown them in the bin, which meant this photo didn't add up. They showed this to the owner of

[C]

the hand and he said, that's my hand, my fingers. How is that in a photograph? When he threw them in the bin before I had the operation, again, it

[D]

was just one of the strange things that happened and you think, well, this. I mean, I ended up with it. My opinion was that Sergio appeared to have a God complex.

[A]

It was becoming clearer and clearer that there was a possibility that this man wasn't just incompetent. Could it actually be that he knew he was hurting people and maybe just didn't care? Bernard and Sandra were baffled and Horrified.

[D]

If it was over a very short period of time, you think, oh, perhaps someone, a supervisor or someone in a senior position hadn't had the opportunity to intervene. But he was there for five years. So I find it actually incredible that nobody saw fit to actually have some sort of balance in checks and, you know, a periodic review of his work and just let him run it begs belief from my point of view.

[C]

We would come back into the office having been outtaken statements, and we'd then have debrief with our sio. He'd read our statements and each day we'd say, I can't believe this. And each day we'd come back and we'd have another one where we think, this is worse. And it was, it was. We were all both upset and angry and we were also disappointed and angry with the fact that there were so many people that felt what we were doing was almost a witch hunt. If this was in the UK and this was happening in a hospital in your county or in your area, people would be in uproar about it and they would want action taken. But over there, and also the victims all felt that, oh, they just. Whatever Sergio had advised them and whatever he'd said to them, it must be right.

[A]

Remember, this is an island of 4,000 people and it's been estimated that Sergio operated on 600 of them. Should 15% of the population having orthopaedic surgery in a short amount of time not have raised alarm bells in England, it's an estimated 1% of the population who have some kind of orthopaedic surgery each year. So 5%. If you extrapolate over Sergio's five years,

[D]

when the investigation started and the statements had been obtained and a decision was taken that he needed to be arrested

[A]

and provide an account, Sergio was arrested and questioned. He replied no comment to every single one and instead read out a statement. The police bailed him to continue investigating, but as they were doing so, got news.

[D]

He's booked on a flight to go tomorrow. If anyone interferes with him getting on that flight, there will be repercussions.

[A]

That's next time on the surgeon of St. Helena, Dr. Sergio Villatoro. Brand did not respond to our requests for comment and the St Helena government, which runs the hospital, decline to comment. If you want to listen to more of this show early and ad free, Search for Always True Crime on Patreon, where you'll find pictures from my time on the island as well, or you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. The surgeon of St. Helena is an Audio Always production. It was written and hosted by me, Luke Jones. Louisa Adams is the producer, Ailsa Rochester is the executive producer and sound designer is by Craig Edmondson. Keep your wellness routine going strong all summer. Cachava's new travel packs help you stick to your daily ritual even when you're on the go. Just one packet of Cachava's all in One Nutrition Shake provides complete nutrition wherever you are with 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens, adaptogens and more. Simplify your daily ritual. Go to kachava.com and use code NEWS for 15% off. That's K A C H-A-V A.com Code News Want more? True Crime this podcast and loads more are part of the Always True Crime Network. It's packed with box sets to binge and twisted tales you won't find anywhere else. Find your next podcast obsession@always truecrime.com.