Scientist implanted fake embryos to pay off debts

An embryologist was found guilty yesterday of carrying out bogus fertility treatment on eight women as part of a scam to pay off his debts.

Paul Fielding faces a jail sentence after he was convicted on charges of assault and false accounting for his "despicable" crime.

Fielding, 44, allowed the women to undergo the operations at the NHS-run North Hampshire fertility centre and the private Hampshire Clinic, both in Basingstoke, between 1997 and 1999.

To help pay £49,000 debts, Fielding was paid £50 each time a gynaecologist placed what he thought were thawed embryos in the patients' wombs. But Fielding, who is married with three children, had not mixed the women's eggs with their partners' sperm, and no eggs were being inserted into the women. Instead he gave them a test tube of saline solution. The victims, who were desperate for children, needlessly underwent the painful process.

The patients spent thousands of pounds on the procedures at two clinics, but during the three years that Fielding worked at both places, no successful fertilisations from frozen embryos took place.

This led to concerns being raised but Fielding, from Whitchurch, Hampshire, covered up his scam by falsifying records, Southampton Crown Court heard. An audit later discovered the embryos of all eight women who had the procedure were still at the clinic.

Judge John Boggis QC told Fielding: "I want you to be in no doubt whatsoever that you betrayed the trust these couples put in you. Your crimes are despicable and you face a custodial sentence."

One victim, Frances Douglas, said Fielding ruined her last chance of having a child.

She told ITV News: "It was like taking an important exam, failing it and being told to take it the next day. You just don't want to know for a bit, you just want to put it out of your head.

"So of course, the years have gone by, I'm 44 now so I think my chances have gone." Ms Douglas spent £2,000 on fertility treatment but her embryos were never implanted.

Debbie Carter, who was told that embryos stored by Fielding had "disappeared", said: "We were desperate for children and that was the closest thing we had to a baby.

"To me, when we walked into the clinic, I used to wave to them and very quietly say 'mummy's here'. That's how much they meant to us. It was the best chance we had."

The jury was told that Fielding's record-keeping was a "shambles" and it could not be statistically ruled out that some women were given the wrong embryos by mistake.

The jury found Fielding guilty of eight counts of false accounting and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was granted bail and the case was adjourned until 15 January for psychiatric reports to be prepared.