German killer doctor’s court fight to silence victim’s family
A BUNGLING German doctor who killed a patient while working shifts in Britain has launched an audacious legal bid to silence the man’s sons from “damaging” his reputation.
But in emotional scenes yesterday, one of the sons told a court he would never stop calling into question Daniel Ubani’s competence.
Rory Gray, 45, said: “He is a charlatan, he is a killer, he is an animal.
“I believe he is not fit to practise medicine and I cannot make a pledge that I won’t say these things.”
Ubani is seeking a Europe-wide injunction to gag Mr Gray and his brother Stuart, 50.
He killed their elderly father David by injecting him with 10 times the recommended dose of a painkiller.
The doctor – banned from practising medicine in Britain – admitted he had only two hours’ sleep before starting his first shift in the UK.
He also said he was confused about the difference between drugs used here and in Germany.
A coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing and said Mr Gray’s death was due to gross negligence.The General Medical Council also found Ubani had mistreated at least two other patients.
He can still practise in Germany, however, despite being given a suspended jail sentence for causing death by negligence and fined £4,000.
Yesterday, at the state court in Kempten, Bavaria, judges tried to make a deal between Ubani, 67, who was not present, and Rory Gray. Judge Thorsten Wilhelm, said: “If you can agree to not say certain things in the future, we will not have to make a judgment. Can we agree a reconciliation?”
But Mr Gray, who is also representing his brother, said he could not make any pledge to stop calling Ubani “a killer”.
He told a panel of three judges that his statements were based on fact and not opinion.
Ubani is trying to silence the brothers after they heckled him at a medical conference in Germany and at a conference of plastic surgeons.
Ruben Engel, Ubani’s lawyer, said; “This is not about trying to silence the press but our client has a right to defend his reputation and we argue that these phrases used against him are damaging to his reputation.”
He also told Mr Gray: “I offer you my sincerest condolences for what happened to your father. I am, personally, truly sorry.”
If the gagging order is successful, Ubani is asking the court to make the brothers pay £200,000 each time they breach it. The judges will rule on August 25.
Ubani also faces a fitness to practise hearing in Germany on August 18. He has indicated he may not attend, even though this would trigger a court application by Germany’s ruling medical body to suspend his licence as a cosmetic surgeon, in turn disqualifying him as a GP.
David Gray, from Manea, Cambridgeshire, was 70 when he died.
