High Court ruling could force State to pay millions to hep C victims

THE State could be forced to pay tens of millions of euro in compensation to those who contracted Hepatitis C following a High Court ruling yesterday.

The landmark decision means anyone who has already accepted awards of compensation from the statutory tribunal set up in 1997 can now bring their claims to the High Court in the hope they will get considerably bigger awards.

Yesterday’s test case was taken by a man who was awarded £125,000 after he became infected from contaminated blood products. He won the right to appeal the decision to the High Court.