Victims of the infected blood scandal who were treated for haemophilia with contaminated blood products in an NHS clinic at Treloar’s are angry about a statement from the school.

In the statement, about the Infected Blood Inquiry, Treloar’s said: “Treloar’s staff, students and their families together placed their trust in the treatment and advice given out by the NHS clinic, and the doctors and medical professionals who ran it in the 1970s and 1980s.

“It has been shocking to discover that some of our students may have received treatment there which was unsafe or experimental, and that the NHS did not always obtain sufficient consent.”

Responding to Treloar’s, victims group The Treloar’s Boys said: “We take issue with the idea that effectively they too were a victim. Their apparent disregard of facts and supporting documents leaves us feeling dismissed and outraged. At the very least the response of the school is disingenuous.

“Our parents placed us into the care of the school in the fully understandable belief that should we require or otherwise receive medical treatment then our parents would be consulted before any treatment was provided.

“We were the patients and were legally incapable of providing consent. Our parents could have provided consent or otherwise refused, but they were not consulted. They had entrusted that role to the school, who provided consent without authority.

“The school applied for and received funding for research, to employ Dr Rainsford and set him up a research laboratory. The research conducted at the school was in breach of the Declaration of Helsinki.

“For the school to continue to deny any responsibility, putting the blame wholly with the NHS, is not only disrespectful to the 75 dead former pupils, but is both preposterous and insulting. Treloar’s failed in its duty of care towards us.”