A Spanish anaesthetist who infected 275 of his patients with hepatitis C - including four who subsquently died - was sentenced today to almost 2,000 years in prison.

Juan Maeso was a morphine addict who would inject himself with doses destined for his patients and then use the same needles on his victims.

After a case lasting almost two years and which attracted massive publicity in Spain, Maeso was today sentenced to 1,933 years in prison by Valencia Provincial Court for infecting 275 people at four hospitals in the Valencia area between 1988 and 1997.

The sentence, for 275 cases of causing injuries and four of manslaughter, is a nominal gesture reflecting the perceived seriousness of the crime in the eyes of the court, as under Spanish law he can legally only serve a maximum of 20 years behind bars. However, at 65 years old, Maeso may well spend the rest of his life in jail.

As well as the prison term, the court ordered the drug addict to pay 500,000 euros in damages to each of the victims and their survivors.

During the trial, more than 350 people were called to take the stand including infected patients, health staff who worked withMaeso and experts witnesses.

The court heard that Maeso was head of anaesthetics at Valencia's Hospital de la Fe until 1998, and also worked as a consultant at the private Hospital Casa de la Salud in the city. He was found to have infected numerous patients at both locations. The addict was also heard to have infected patients at two other Valencia hospitals.

During the trial, Maeso repeatedly denied having knowingly passing on the illness, claiming that he had only used the needles after using them on his patients to put them to sleep first, and that one of them must have passed hepatitis C to him.

"They were those used on patients first - not the other way round," he said.

In a series of contradictory statements, Maeso initially told the court that he had not known that he had hepatitis C at all, saying he felt "very good" - but later admitted that he knew he had the virus after a positive test in the late 1990s.

Hepatitis C can cause serious liver disease, leading to conditions including cirrhosis and primary liver cancer.

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