A HAEMOPHILIAC was told he had a deadly virus five years before the test was made available to other sufferers, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Campaigners claim the news supports their case that they were deliberately kept in the dark when they agreed not to take legal action over the virus, before they knew they may have been infected.

Ollie Carruthers is believed to be the first in the North-East to be told he had contracted hepatitis C, when he became ill following an operation to remove a tooth in 1989.

Mr Carruthers, 52, who lives in Washington, was given a blood transfusion during the operation, at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.

When he later became feverish and weak, he arranged to see consultant Dr Peter Jones, who told him in December 1989 that he had contracted hepatitis C.

Mr Carruthers said he was told that if he did not drink alcohol for six months he would be all right, but when the symptoms persisted for several years, he eventually used the Internet to find out that the virus was potentially fatal.

He said: "When I found out what was wrong with me I was really angry. There were nights when I just cried."

He said he was now backing calls for a public inquiry into contaminated blood and compensation for haemophiliacs who had contracted hepatitis C.

Two years after Mr Carruthers was tested, haemophiliacs who had been infected with HIV through contaminated blood accepted a compensation package from the Government.

Part of the deal included an undertaking not to take action over potential infection with hepatitis viruses but it was only later in 1991 that a hepatitis C test was made widely available and only in 1994 that North-East haemophiliacs were told whether they had contracted the disease.

A spokeswoman for Haemophilia Action UK, whose partner has contracted both hepatitis C and HIV, said: "If the hepatitis test was available for one person it should have been available for others.

"If people had been tested for hepatitis C they would have fought for more compensation in the HIV settlement in 1991, for being infected with two viruses."

A Department of Health spokesman said pending legal action meant that it could not comment on events leading up to the introduction of a hepatitis C test