London - A leading British liver surgeon pleaded guilty to
assault on Wednesday after he admitted scorching his initials onto
the livers of two patients.
Simon Bramhall, 53, accepted two "assault by beating" charges but
denied more serious charges of assault causing "actual bodily harm"
at Birmingham Crown Court, reports said.
Bramhall's initials were discovered on the liver of one patient by a
different surgeon who carried out a later operation.
A later investigation found that Bramhall had scorched his initials
onto the liver of a second patient using an argon beam, which is
commonly used to seal liver wounds, the BBC and other media said.
"This has been a highly unusual and complex case," the broadcaster
quoted prosecutor Tony Badenoch as saying after Bramhall's guilty
plea.
"It is factually, so far as we have been able to establish, without
legal precedent in criminal law," Badenoch said, adding that Bramhall
had accepted his actions were "not just ethically wrong but
criminally wrong."
The respected consultant surgeon, who specialized in liver
transplants, was suspended from his job at Birmingham's Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in 2013 and resigned in mid-2014 following a
disciplinary hearing.
The court granted Bramhall unconditional bail before a sentencing
hearing on January 12.