Courtroom Drama

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Pitcairn Trials – "Courtroom Drama"

Podcast: The Pitcairn Trials (Always True Crime)
Episode: Courtroom Drama
Date: July 6, 2026
Host: Luke Jones

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Overview

In this episode, the focus shifts to the high-drama courtroom proceedings surrounding "The Surgeon of St. Helena" scandal. The episode offers an insider’s account of Dr. Sergio Villatoro Bran’s sentencing, the reactions of his victims and their families, and exposes the systemic failures and deep frustrations surrounding justice and compensation processes on a tiny, isolated British island.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strange Return of Dr. Sergio

• Dr. Sergio Villatoro Bran, accused and eventually pleading guilty to five counts of unlawful wounding while serving as a doctor, unexpectedly returns to St. Helena for his sentencing.
• Ruth Powell (lawyer representing victims) and her team encounter Sergio at Johannesburg airport, sparking confusion as to why he would return given the gravity of the charges.
  • Quote: “We were all thinking, why on earth would he come back to St Helena to be sentenced when actually these are serious offenses that carry custodial penalties.” — Ruth Powell (03:39)
• Awkward, tense encounters at the airport set the tone for the emotionally charged courtroom drama.

2. The Sentencing Proceedings (04:44 – 13:00)

• The courtroom is described as intimate and closely linked – judge appears remotely via Teams, islanders fill the benches.
• Victim Impact Statements read in court illustrate the devastating physical and emotional consequences of Sergio's actions:
  • (06:23) Woman (ex-police officer): “I used to be able to walk, walk upstairs, run and swim… but I can’t do any of that anymore. The main impact is that I cannot do the job that I love, which is a uniformed police officer.”
  • Another victim (06:52): “There have been many times that I have just sat and cried with the pain… If it wasn’t for my sister… I do not know how I would have coped.”
• Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner) describes watching Sergio pray during proceedings, noting the irony as he was not known to attend church (07:35).
• The financial aspects of sentencing are discussed with no documentary proof required regarding Sergio’s income, raising fears about the integrity of the process.
  • Quote: “It just seemed as if the judge was accepting everything that he said about his financial position, which may have been correct, but it may not have been, and it wasn’t interrogated.” — Ruth Powell (08:39)

3. The Sentence and Its Fallout (09:07 – 15:50)

• Judge Rupert Jones sets a starting point of 3 years imprisonment per offence, reduced to 1 year 11 months per count (concurrent and suspended) due to Sergio's guilty plea, character references, contributions to the hospital, and purported negative prison conditions.
• No immediate jail time for Sergio – just a suspended sentence.
  • Quote: “It is my opinion that he should have gone to jail. He didn’t. And that, I think, is why I’m so angry.” — Catherine (10:42)
• Sergio is also fined £2,000 per victim plus £5,000 to the prosecutor (£15,000 total) and struck off the medical register at St. Helena, with a recommendation for Guatemalan authorities to be notified.
• Ruth details the surreal aftermath — Sergio drinks wine in the VIP lounge before leaving the island, seemingly unfazed by the verdict (13:39).
  • Quote: “It exemplified a man who just did not care.” — Ruth Powell (13:40)
• The victims and community voices their fury at what they see as a profound injustice.
  • Quote: “Makes me absolutely sick that somebody can abuse his position, abuse his power, be paid 10 times the average wage and then injure people and walk away, have a glass of wine, read a book, fly out... There’s no justice in that.” — Catherine (15:11)

4. The Growing Scale of the Scandal (15:54 – 18:00)

• Ruth Powell’s client list grows from 75 to 140 alleged victims — a staggering number given the island’s population.
• An attempt is made to negotiate a streamlined compensation protocol with the government, but trust is low.
• Vince (local newspaper editor) warns listeners: “...this government is so infamous for moving the goalposts.” (17:18)

5. The Peters Family Story – The Trauma of Medical Harm (20:32 – 32:23)

• The episode takes us inside the home of the Peters family, whose son Mario (with cerebral palsy) suffers dire, irreversible harm after an avoidable knee fracture is mishandled by Sergio.
• Mario, previously mobile, is left unable to walk; the family struggles physically and emotionally as primary carers.
  • Patrick Peters (28:57): “Yes. And to worry about that. I even asked so many times, you know, what gonna happen to him if anything happened to us, where they gonna put him? ...The damage is already done to Mario and he ain’t gonna improve. He ain’t gonna get no better.”
• Their claim, anticipated to be worth over £1 million (for lifelong care needs), is initially met with insulting lowball offers: £15,000, then £20,000 — a “slap in the face.”
• Genuine conflict emerges as the Public Solicitor (government-funded) appears to pressure the family into accepting inadequate settlements.
  • Quote: “She was telling us to take the 15,000 and we wouldn’t take it. So then they offered us 20,000. Catherine said that was a slap in the face.” — Patrick Peters (32:23)
  • The family ultimately seeks independent representation.

6. Ongoing Bureaucratic Resistance & The Fight for Justice (33:40 – End)

• Despite an apparent protocol for compensation, the government repeatedly frustrates and resists mass claims for victims of Sergio's malpractice.
• Ruth Powell, the victims, and islanders continue to press for genuine accountability while facing official stonewalling and bureaucratic delays.
  • Quote: “It’s a bit like abusers who prey on people and can take advantage of people that are vulnerable.” — Ruth Powell (34:16)
• The government of St. Helena, Dr. Sergio, and key officials consistently decline to comment when approached by the podcast team.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ruth Powell (03:39): “We were all thinking, why on earth would he come back to St Helena to be sentenced when actually these are serious offenses that carry custodial penalties.”
• Victim Impact Statement (06:23): “I used to be able to walk, walk upstairs, run and swim… but I can’t do any of that anymore.”
• Catherine, Human Rights Commissioner (10:42): “It is my opinion that he should have gone to jail. He didn’t. And that, I think, is why I’m so angry.”
• Ruth Powell (13:40): “It exemplified a man who just did not care.”
• Catherine (15:11): “There’s no justice in that. And the five people who went to court were extremely angry with that decision. It was wrong.”
• Patrick Peters (32:23): “She was telling us to take the 15,000 and we wouldn’t take it. So then they offered us 20,000. Catherine said that was a slap in the face.”
• Ruth Powell (34:16): “It’s a bit like abusers who prey on people and can take advantage of people that are vulnerable.”

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Important Timestamps

• 02:19 — Ruth and Sergio’s awkward airport encounter
• 04:44 — Setting the courthouse scene
• 05:31 — Human rights commissioner’s presence; her daughter-in-law is a victim
• 06:23 — Emotional victim impact statements
• 09:23 — Judge’s rationale for a suspended sentence
• 13:40 — Sergio relaxes in the VIP lounge post-sentencing
• 15:56 — Scale of the claims grows to 140 people
• 20:32 – 32:23 — The Peters family’s harrowing story
• 33:40 — Compensation standoff and frustrations

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Tone and Style

The episode is empathetic, detail-focused, and unflinching in its depiction of institutional failure and personal devastation. Conversations are direct and candid, with raw emotion from victims and their advocates, lending the episode both urgency and gravity.

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Summary

“Courtroom Drama” reveals how isolated justice systems can fail victims, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. The episode lays bare the pain, anger, and ongoing struggle for compensation and acknowledgment among the island’s close-knit community, while offering a sharp critique of official inertia, misplaced loyalty, and bureaucratic neglect. The suspense builds toward future episodes, promising further confrontations with those in power — and no easy closure for the wounded.

For listeners seeking rich-character true crime stories and thought-provoking analysis of small-community justice, this episode delivers a gripping, human portrait of systemic failure and the tenacity of those who refuse to be silenced.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

We'll get back to your true crime story in just a moment. This podcast is part of the Always True Crime Network, home of thousands of episodes exploring gripping true crime cases. If you're looking for somewhere to start, check out our recent investigative series Project Mind Control. It uncovers a chilling chapter in history, examining the disturbing experiments carried out on vulnerable people in an attempt to erase and reprogram the human mind. Featuring testimony from one of the last known survivors of a notorious Canadian psychiatric institution, it's a powerful story that's as shocking as it is important. Check out the show and more at always true crime.com.

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[Nancy Hickst]

A beloved 75 year old man washing up, getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hickst. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not Crime Beat. Search for and follow the award winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

[Ruth Powell]

Any unattended baggage will be removed from the solicitor.

[Luke Jones]

Ruth knew she had to come out and watch Sergio's sentencing. The surgeon had been on the island for five years in total, but a massive criminal investigation had resulted in just five charges of unlawful wounding alleged victims. Even the police. Bernard and Sandra, who helped investigate him, were shocked that this is what it amounted to. They said it should have been more the indictment that he faced. There's no real reflection of the magnitude of the offenses that he should have. Ruth now had a growing client list of People who said they'd been harmed and who wanted justice. So she set out to send Helena. For the first time, she didn't think Dr. Sergio, having pleaded guilty, would actually come back to the island for his sentencing. Why would he? But she wanted to see how all of this panned out. She took her flight through South Africa. But when waiting for the second leg of the journey in Johannesburg airport, in the little bit by the gate, Ruth recognised someone in the crowd. A slim, well built, confident looking bald man. It was Dr. Sergio. There he was waiting for a flight back to St. Helena.

[Ruth Powell]

We were all thinking, why on earth would he come back to St Helena to be sentenced when actually these are serious offenses that carry custodial penalties.

[Luke Jones]

Ruth and her team were completely bemused.

[Ruth Powell]

We kind of thought, tactically, we'll hang back because he's bound to want to get on the plane first. So we'll just wait, we'll be the last ones on. But unfortunately he had the same idea. So we got to the bit where you hand your ticket in. There's only one person standing there and it's him. So there's this really awkward moment where we all kind of go, hmm, okay.

[Luke Jones]

You didn't say hello?

[Ruth Powell]

No. Very strange.

[Luke Jones]

The next time she'd see him would be in cause from audio always and me, Luke Jones. This is The Surgeon of St. Helena. Episode 5 courtroom drama. When I myself arrived on St. Helena, many trips later for Ruth, she took me through what happened at Sergio sentencing.

[Ruth Powell]

The Attorney General's chambers, the prison, the governor's office, which is called the castle, and the court are all in the same few meters from each other. So they're all together. So the sentencing was at the courthouse, which is very small, it is online so you can join by teams and actually the judge joined by teams, so he wasn't there in the room.

[Luke Jones]

The Chief Justice Rupert Jones dialed in from London. He was appointed after Sergio had left the island. But the seats in the courtroom were filled with island folk who had known Sergio.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

There were quite a lot of members of the public and the press present, counsellors and people who wanted to see what was happening.

[Luke Jones]

Catherine was there because not only had she, as the island's human rights Commissioner, had lots of complaints about Dr. Sergio, but remember, her daughter in law was actually one of his victims and she was one of the victims in one of the five counts of unlawful wounding that he'd pleaded guilty to and that he was there to be sentenced for.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

I went to the sentencing, but she wouldn't go. She couldn't go. She was just in pieces. She took the day off work, sat at home and just couldn't deal with it all because she knew he would walk free.

[Luke Jones]

Sergio was sitting in the dock, actually,

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

here they are quite relaxed. They don't normally put people in the dock unless it is quite serious. You can usually sit next to the solicitor. So he was where he should have been.

[Ruth Powell]

I guess he didn't look super comfortable. I mean, you wouldn't be. And I suspect that he was a bit nervous.

[Luke Jones]

Victim impact statements were read out in court. One of them spoke of her knees giving way when they went upstairs. Another woman who used to be a police officer said in hers, I used to be able to walk, walk upstairs, run and swim, amongst other things that I used to love to do, but I can't do any of that anymore. The main impact is that I cannot do the job that I love, which is a uniformed police officer. I've had so many tears and suffered so many emotions, and not just physically, but mentally too. Another one said, there have been many times that I have just sat and cried with the pain and the fact that I am unable to carry out activities as I have in the past. If it wasn't for my sister who was helping me at the beginning, I do not know how I would have coped. I cannot drive and recently had a driving lesson, but couldn't operate the clutch without pain. So I've had to give this up. My left knee is still numb along the outside and makes a popping noise when active.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

During that, summing up Sergio, I looked at him a couple of times. I was having difficulty looking at him because I'm angry.

[Luke Jones]

Catherine was sitting next to her son, who is married to one of the victims.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

I was trying to keep calm because of him because at that point he was a counselor and wouldn't be the done thing for a counselor to start shouting out in court. Not that I'm sure he wouldn't have done, but I was sort of concerned about him. But I looked at Sergio at one point and he was holding his hands in prayer with his eyes closed, muttering and praying, and I was unaware that he ever attended church while he was here.

[Luke Jones]

In determining his sentence, the judge asked a few questions about Sergio's income because there would be a financial element to the punishment.

[Ruth Powell]

What I would have expected when you're asking somebody about their ability to pay compensation is that you would want proof of what their income is. But it was just a really weird line of questioning along the lines of, how much do you earn and he would give the answer, didn't ask for any documentary evidence. Who are you supporting at home? Well, I'm supporting my wife and children and elderly mother who lives in a home. How much does that cost you to do that?

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

It was.

[Ruth Powell]

It was all taken at his word. And that might be the way, the right way that it's done, but. So it just seemed as if the judge was accepting everything that he said about his financial position, which may have been correct, but it may not have been, and it wasn't interrogated.

[Luke Jones]

And how did that shake down?

[Ruth Powell]

It shook down in that the judge then listened to all this and then said, I'm now going to give my judgment.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

Throughout, he didn't look particularly concerned. When the judge came back in to give his written judgment, we talked about the victims and the effect it had had on them. Daddy, Daddy, Da.

[Luke Jones]

The judge said, and I've got a copy of his sentencing remarks here, that the starting point for each offense, going by the English sentencing guidelines, should be at the top of the bracket. So that would be three years imprisonment for each offence to run concurrently. But the judge pointed out that Sergio had pleaded guilty. He had been a doctor on the island for many years with some satisfied patients. He had set up the orthopaedic department, introduced equipment and had his contract extended. I have read a number of very positive character references from a full range of people on St Helena. The judge pointed to professional references from Guatemala, talk of his charitable work in Latin America, and the fact that he complied with the order to return to St Helena to face the sentencing in person. So what did that reduce the sentence to? 1 year and 11 months in prison for each of the five counts, which would run concurrently at the same time. And because that sentence was under two years, it could be suspended. Being put in prison would result in significant harmful impact on his family, the judge said, adding that the conditions in St Helena's prison are bad as well, with overcrowding, no natural light and poor ventilation.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

It is my opinion that he should have gone to jail. He didn't. And that, I think, is why I'm so angry. I had to go down to the prison and explain to somebody who had had a five year sentence for causing quite a nasty injury to a police officer. But it wasn't so debilitating that he had to take time off work. He did need stitches. He got five years for that. He served about four years in actual jail. He couldn't understand why a doctor could take a knife to people in cold blood, cut into them, do Things that they'd not consented to and possibly didn't even need. Probably didn't even need. And yet he walked away free with a suspended sentence. And how do you justify that?

[Luke Jones]

But it wasn't just the suspended prison sentence. He was also fined. Now, remember the Magistrates Court, which dealt with the Botox stealing? They fined him £2,100 for that. For this, he was fined £2,000 per victim, plus £5,000 to the prosecutor for costs incurred.

[Ruth Powell]

So it was a total of £15,000 that he was ordered to pay, that that money had to be paid before he was able to leave St. Helena, that he was struck off in terms of practicing medicine in St. Helena, as if he was ever going to come back. And he made a recommendation that the authorities in Guatemala, police, judiciary, medical, should be notified of this judgment, with a view to him being struck off potentially in Guatemala, and if he were to breach the terms of his suspended sentence, that he could potentially be brought back to St. Helena and serve his sentence as an incarcerated prisoner.

[Luke Jones]

The court was adjourned. It was a Friday and the next weekly flight off the island was Saturday. Sergio needed a bit of time to get the money together, so he couldn't get out of Dodge for another week. Ruth says she didn't see him until the flight home. That is where she bumped into him again. Was that more awkward than the first one?

[Ruth Powell]

Well, I tell you, the weird thing about that is. So St. Helena Airport, you can imagine, is not very big. So the departure lounge is tiny, but there is a VIP section which is glassed off at the end. There's a telly in there, I think you get drinks and everything. So this guy has just been given five suspended sentences for unlawful wounding.

[Patrick Peters]

Yep.

[Ruth Powell]

We're all flying off the island. He arrives, goes into the VIP suite and sits there drinking wine whilst everybody's waiting to get on the plane. It was just such a misstep. It was just so inappropriate for me. It exemplified a man who just did not care.

[Luke Jones]

Ruth says she saw another familiar face on the flight, the deputy governor, Greg Gibson. She'd been to see him before the sentencing to explain to him the enormous, growing caseload she had of people who said they'd been harmed by Dr. Sergio.

[Ruth Powell]

And then when we got off at Johannesburg, you kind of get off the plane and you walk through that funny old bit in airports where the loos are and everything, and then you get to a bit where there's an escalator that goes down and then you kind of set free. You know, you pick up your baggage. Sergio was in front of us all the walk from the plane to the escalator, and so was Greg Gibson and his wife. They got to the bottom of the escalator and there was this huge embrace. This is the deputy governor, who I'd had a conversation with about the inappropriateness of this man's behavior, who was clearly a very good friend of Sergio. And again, it's just. Just that inappropriate separation of all these institutions which should uphold standards.

[Luke Jones]

We contacted the Foreign Office about this. They declined to comment. We also reached out to Greg Gibson and he didn't reply.

[Catherine (Human Rights Commissioner)]

Makes me sick. Makes me absolutely sick that somebody can abuse his position, abuse his power, be paid 10 times the average wage and then injure people and walk away, have a glass of wine, read a book, fly out and it. There's no justice in that. There's no justice at all. And the five people who went to court were extremely angry with that decision. It was wrong.

[Luke Jones]

A fresh fight for justice was brewing. Then.

[Ruth Powell]

By the time I planned to go out, I had been instructed by about 75, by then 75 people, it was

[Luke Jones]

soon up to 140 people who, like the five who had been involved in the criminal trial, said they had been harmed at St Helena's Hospital, the vast majority saying by Sergio, that is 3.5% of the population of St Helena in the UK. The equivalent would be 2.5 million people, so just over the populations of Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool combined. Ruth approached this, she says, as she might in the uk, you've got a lot of complainants, so you get together with the party who've accepted liability and will be on the hook for the compensation in this case, St. Helena's government, and thrash out a clear, quick, streamlined way to get through all these cases. She says she put this to the Attorney General when she's on Ireland.

[Ruth Powell]

And that was the meeting where he said to me, why are you here, Ms. Powell? It was quite an assertive way to start the conversation.

[Luke Jones]

But to Ruth's surprise, the Attorney General unveiled a proposal they had ready for how this compensation scheme, this protocol, as the jargon is, could work.

[Ruth Powell]

I thought, great, if we can get some sort of scheme going, fantastic. We then had the sentencing on the Friday, and immediately after the sentencing, the Attorney General made a press release announcing a compensation scheme.

[Luke Jones]

Vince, the newspaper editor, saw this release saying, yes, we will cooperate, we accept liability. He wasn't totally convinced. We're very sorry for everything that's happened to so many people, blah, blah, blah. Incredible what they'll say which all sounds very good. Yes, after reading that and talking to Ruth Powell, I said, watch out this government. I mean, all governments are the same, I suppose, but this government is so infamous for moving the goalposts.

[Nancy Hickst]

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[Luke Jones]

That's the Connect effect.

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Learn [e-mail] this episode is sponsored by Zocdoc. Have you been putting off a doctor's appointment or you need a dentist and you don't know where to start? We've definitely been there and that's why we use Zoc Dock. Actually over the holidays Michael had a dental emergency and seemingly every office was closed. But we hopped onto zocdoc, found an in network dentist, had great reviews, saw real time appointments available, which was key. It was on New Year's Day and booked an appointment in just minutes. It took so much of the stress out of the already stressful situation. Zocdoc makes it easy to search and compare over 250,000 local in network providers across more than 200 specialties so you can find the right doctor or dentist and book instantly. Taking care of your health just got easier. Download the ZocDoc app today and book that appointment on your to do list. That's Z O C D O C zocdoc.

[Ruth Powell]

If you're fascinated by true crime, then

[Luke Jones]

Join us in October 2026 for CrimeCon London. Meet the big names in True Crime TV. Experience live forensic demonstrations and dive deep into the criminal mind with your favorite authors, experts, podcasters and content creators. To secure your place, go to crimecon.co.uk now and be part of the UK's biggest true crime community. CrimeCon London partnered by True Crime Channel 3rd and 4th of October 2026. Was it that important for people to get compensation? I mean, it is awful to have been injured by a criminal surgeon, but what is money going to do? When I was out on the island, when Ruth was also there visiting clients, I went with her to see the Peters family. You need a robust car wherever you go on St. Helena, but the Peters family live up to an especially steep hill. My fiesta would have had no chance.

[Ruth Powell]

Hi Patrick. Oh, there's so many people.

[Luke Jones]

It is a beautiful, small, calm home with a little garden and like so many places here, with a terrific panoramic View of the Atlantic. Hi, Patrick, I'm Luke. Nice to meet you.

[Ruth Powell]

Nice to see you again.

[Patrick Peters]

Nice to see you.

[Ruth Powell]

Luke and Louisa are just journalists.

[Patrick Peters]

Okay.

[Ruth Powell]

And they are. They've taken an interest in the case and they're creating a podcast that's kind of about the Sergio issue, but also about the other issues on the island.

[Luke Jones]

The family consists of mum and dad, Jillian, Patrick in their late 60s and their son Mario in his mid-40s. Jilly grew up on the island.

[Patrick Peters]

They used to have a disc attack down there where the consulate is now at the bottom used to be a disc attack and young teenagers to go there.

[Luke Jones]

Would we have found you dancing there?

[Patrick Peters]

That's the only like place I would think I would. And cinemas.

[Luke Jones]

Yeah. Patrick was born and raised on the island too. And it sounds like a simple but tough life.

[Patrick Peters]

Couldn't go out nowhere. Them days I was strip strip pains. Go school, come home, get wood, animals, garden. Maybe once or twice I can go town. But you had to ask if you can go town. Maybe Christmas you go town. And that's all.

[Luke Jones]

They met, started a family and had Mario, their first son. It was immediately clear though that there were issues.

[Patrick Peters]

He was premature. They wasn't expecting him to live. But he pulled it through afterwards and they used to tube feeding. He was in the incubator for so long for about six weeks.

[Luke Jones]

Mario is sitting in his wheelchair just next to us, humming along to his mother's voice.

[Patrick Peters]

I was in hospital for three months with him. Eventually they told me I just had to bring him home. So I brought him home with the tube down. Nice to tube feeding. Eventually I just started tucking the tube away and I spoon fed him. So he'd been spoon fed ever since. It was like later years when they diagnosed him, said he was, you know, cerebral palsy. Like he wouldn't get any better with his leg talking or anything like that there. But he did come a long way. He improved.

[Ruth Powell]

Yes.

[Luke Jones]

And how did you feel when you got that diagnosis? They said they had a name for it. How did you feel?

[Patrick Peters]

Well, I learned to accept it and I learned to cope with it. Yeah.

[Luke Jones]

It is of course, incredibly tough raising a child and then a young man with cerebral palsy. But Mario could walk in the house,

[Patrick Peters]

he walked around on his own. He go up to his room, he would come out, open the door up, he would go to the fridge if he wanted something to drink. When Inovia used to keep his chips, he like his cheese curds. So he used to go to the cupboard, you know, that sort of thing.

[Luke Jones]

It didn't make caring for him easy, but it was of course, helpful. He was mobile, he could walk down to get the bus and they could wave him off to a sort of daycare. They could have a rest, get on with some work. It was a manageable setup. One day Jilly waved Mario off as he was being picked up by some carers and he was absolutely fine when he went.

[Patrick Peters]

Gilly remembers when he come back that afternoon, they was outside shouting, say, oh, Mario had an accident, we need help to getting out the car.

[Luke Jones]

An accident.

[Patrick Peters]

So both of us went out and then he couldn't even stand up. It took three of us to lift him in the house because them days he didn't have a wheelchair.

[Luke Jones]

What had happened to him?

[Patrick Peters]

They just said he kicked his toe.

[Luke Jones]

But Mario was in such awful pain and couldn't really walk. When they got him ready for bed that evening, they saw his knee was big and red and swollen, so they took him to the hospital.

[Patrick Peters]

I had their appointment and we saw Dr. Sergio.

[Luke Jones]

What did you make of Dr. Sergio when you met him? What did you think about him?

[Patrick Peters]

He, you know, I thought he was okay. Yeah, he loved those. Yes. He's not that kind of. He knows what he's doing.

[Luke Jones]

Sergio said it was a sprain and gave him an injection. But poor Mario was clearly in pain. He was moaning and groaning, unable to explain in words how he was feeling.

[Patrick Peters]

I used to sleep very natur to lay in the bed with him, but he wouldn't lay down. So that's why, like we know, something was wrong.

[Luke Jones]

It took two attempts going back to the hospital to actually get Mario's knee X rayed and when it was, it showed a fracture.

[Patrick Peters]

So for two weeks Mario suffered in pain and in silence. I was very angry to think that they could have taken the X ray before then.

[Luke Jones]

Sergio reset the fractured knee manually, no need for surgery, and put Mario's leg in a boot. So far, so normal and usual. But Sergio set Mario's knee at an

[Patrick Peters]

angle and he said that Mario always used to have his leg like that. But Mario's legs used to be straight, so that's why he got that bent in his knee. Now his like knees bent, his leg

[Luke Jones]

had been set in the wrong angle.

[Patrick Peters]

Yeah.

[Luke Jones]

And what did that do to Mario?

[Patrick Peters]

Well, he couldn't walk, he couldn't go.

[Luke Jones]

They went to physio and were told nothing could be done. A fractured knee, which could have and should have been easily sorted out, had resulted in their severely disabled son now being unable to walk. He can't even put weight on the leg. Whereas one person could previously have looked after him because Mario could walk around himself. It now takes two of them. Putting him to bed, taking him to the toilet, washing him. It's a huge task. And Gillian Patrick are getting on. The government gave him a wheelchair with sides to hold him in, which was useful, but it quickly became massively unsuitable.

[Patrick Peters]

So he used to look uncomfortable in the chair and he'd be hunched up and his shoulders used to come round.

[Luke Jones]

So let me get this straight. His leg had been badly dealt with by the hospital to the extent that he couldn't walk anymore. And then the wheelchair you were given, he then quickly grew out of and actually started to affect his upper body. Did that have any effect on him?

[Patrick Peters]

Yes, with his breathing problems, like he was more chesty all the time. Yeah.

[Luke Jones]

He'd be coughing and spluttering, unable to properly clear his chest. So he was getting chest infections. How did you feel about that?

[Patrick Peters]

I feel, you know, angry to myself because I say, you know, we struggle hard with Mario and he. When you ask for something, they don't want to give it. And then it is like they did the damage to him, you know, and make our life more harder than it used to be. If this wouldn't have happened to him, we could go along, you know, how we used to be. I could leave him with Patrick and go. Patrick would shower him on his own. And then we used to take him most places with us when we go to visit family, we take him with us. But now, like it is, make things even harder for us sometimes don't even feel like going. Don't feel like going sometimes. And it's, you know, we get no older. Right. And take its toll on you. All these years we've been doing this. We had Mario there with us all our life. We didn't putting in no home, but used to go for a respite, like a weekend or something. But all that has stopped. You don't even go for the raspate. Maybe 10, 10 years now. Haven't had rat bite or anything.

[Luke Jones]

Do you worry about your own capacity to help him? As you say, you're getting older. A lot of the care is quite physical work.

[Patrick Peters]

Yes. And to worry about that. I even asked so many times, you know, what gonna happen to him if anything happened to us, where they gonna put him? They said they don't know where they going to put him because they not got nothing on the order to put these disabled people. The damage is already done to Mario and he ain't Gonna improve. He ain't gonna get no better. I can't see him getting any better. He'll just be like this now for the rest of his life.

[Luke Jones]

Looking at Mario, yeah, that was quite an upsetting thought.

[Patrick Peters]

Yeah. As long as we can, we'll take care of him. Yeah, as long as we can. I don't know what could happen for him if we not around.

[Luke Jones]

I headed back into town with Ruth to debrief about what we just heard.

[Ruth Powell]

It's tragic what happened to Mario and the suffering that it's caused to him and Gillian Patrick is immense and it's been life changing for them. But Gillian Patrick being Gillian Patrick, made the best of it, got on with it. They don't complain.

[Luke Jones]

But the scale of their need because of how Sergio handled Mario is now enormous.

[Ruth Powell]

So they're going to need adaptations to the house, possibly an extension that will accommodate carers who can go in and take over from Gillian Patrick. Perhaps in the night, perhaps in the day.

[Luke Jones]

There's going to need to be equipment to help Mario move and be moved.

[Ruth Powell]

We're going to have to recruit carers who will have to be there 24 hours a day and have to be paid for 24 hour care. This is a high value claim, even by UK standards, it is a maximum severity claim. It's going to be worth over a million.

[Luke Jones]

Over a million. I mean, it sounds like a lot, but if Mario now needs carers for the rest of his life, equipment, alterations to the house, all because Sergio made him unable to walk, you can see how it does get to a million pounds. When Gillian Patrick first sought help for this, they engaged the public solicitor's office. If you want legal help on the island, this is the only place to go. The island isn't big enough to reasonably sustain another practice. Two full time solicitors work there, a husband and wife. They are funded by government but are independent of it. So if you're Gillian Patrick already nervous about suing the government, your only immediate option is solicitors paid for by the government. The Public Solicitors Office told us that 80% of their caseload is suing the government and they've instructed barristers who've said they fearlessly advance the best interest of their clients. However, a senior judge in the UK looking at this setup recently called it, quote, an organisation with a very modest budget, staff, resources and limited skills and experience, which they refute. Mario's case is serious. A government employed surgeon, Sergio has made him unable to walk. His parents need help and Ruth estimates the value of their claim is north of a million. The government's initial offer, £15,000.

[Patrick Peters]

She was telling us to take the 15,000 and we wouldn't take it. So then they offered us 20,000. Catherine said that was a slap in

[Luke Jones]

the face Human Rights Commissioner. Catherine said, why don't you instruct Ruth instead, who had started looking into all the of. Of this with her firm, Hugh James. Gillian Patrick agreed. But at 7 o' clock that night, they say they got a call from the public solicitor to say, oh, we're

[Patrick Peters]

taking Mario's case to court tomorrow morning, 10 o'. Clock.

[Luke Jones]

Gilly says they were told they were going to make an offer. We've seen the letter where an offer is put forward, but Gilly says she hadn't agreed to anything. The public solicitor's office told us this

[Patrick Peters]

was inaccurate, so we told him to just forget about it. We going over to Hugh James. He didn't like it. He didn't like it.

[Luke Jones]

How could you tell they didn't like it?

[Patrick Peters]

Because one day he was in the street talking to me and asked me, how's Mario and how's the case going? And, oh, you say you went over to Hugh James, he said, and, oh, all they think about, he says, money. Say they won't pick Mum.

[Luke Jones]

What do you think about that?

[Patrick Peters]

I thought it was very rude of him to come to me in the street and say things like that.

[Luke Jones]

The public solicitor's office say these alleged comments from an unidentified member of staff do not reflect the position of their office. Ruth had her client list now 140 strong. They had some sort of agreement that they would work with government on an agreed protocol, a system for processing all of these claims quickly. Justice for the victims of Dr. Sergio would surely soon be round the corner. But shock twist, it wasn't.

[Ruth Powell]

It's a bit like abusers who prey on people and can take advantage of people that are vulnerable.

[Luke Jones]

And so I track down some of those in charge.

[Patrick Peters]

Thank you.

[Ruth Powell]

I can't speak to that.

[Luke Jones]

You can't speak to that. I am very sorry. Thank you. You are Chief Minister. Closing the door. That's next time on the surgeon of St. Helena. As we have said throughout, Dr. Sergio Villatoro Bran did not respond to our many requests for comment and the St Helena government which runs the hospital, altogether now decline to comment. The surgeon of St. Helena is an audio Always production. It's written and hosted by me, Luke Jones. The producer is Louisa Adams. Ailsa Rochester is executive producer and sound design is by Craig Edmondson. Want some more True crime? Why don't you check out my weekly podcast Strangely. Each week I join my friend and true crime podcast queen Poppy Damon to swap stories from either side of the Atlantic about some truly weird goings on from our notebooks, from our headlines. It spans UFO encounters, to thieves swallowing diamonds, to people pretending to be monarchs. Search for Strangely and hit. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nancy Hickst]

A beloved 75 year old man washing up, getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the Killer Killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hickst. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not Crime Beat. Search for and follow the award winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

[Podcast Host]

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 at Always truecrime. Com.