Myles Bradbury: The broken trust of a paedophile cancer doctor

Claire Yeoman's son Declan was treated by Myles Bradbury for 18 months

Paedophile doctor Myles Bradbury was viewed as "God" by the family of one of his child cancer patients. As police appeal for more information, a mother has spoken of how the "sickening" abuse of trust may haunt her forever.

Myles Bradbury pleaded guilty to offences including sexual assault and the making of more than 16,000 indecent images at the city's crown court on Monday. His victims were as young as eight.

The 41-year-old paediatric haematologist from Herringswell, Suffolk, had worked at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge since 2009 and dealt with hundreds of terminally ill children.

Dr Myles Bradbury admitted a total of 25 offences

One of those was Claire Yeoman's three-year-old son Declan, who was not named as a victim in court, but was treated by Dr Bradbury for 18 months. He battled leukaemia from 2011 to November 2012, when he died.

Ms Yeoman, from Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, said Bradbury was a huge part of their lives.

"He was very straight-talking, to the point, very trustworthy because he said he would never sugar-coat anything," said Ms Yeoman, who has two other sons.

"He was like God to our family. He was either the man that was going to fix our child or try the best to fix our child to the best of his abilities.

"We had no doubts whatsoever in his ability. He was highly recommended. We trusted him all the way."

Two days before Bradbury's arrest was publicised, the former nurse said she received a phone call from the hospital telling her what had happened.

Trust 'broken'

After he was charged in July, she said it brought back "the most horrendous memories".

"It made me feel physically ill," she said. "You think 'was your child involved, could you have noticed anything, was there something you missed?'

"So you go through every single day of his treatment and relive the whole memory of that 18 months that you'd tried to get over.

"It's been a really horrible feeling of trust that's been broken. We thought he was everything to our family and all of a sudden he's this man that you don't even know anymore.

"Whether much harm was involved [with Declan] or not I may never know, but if he's got those thoughts and images in his head, what goes through my head is did he think the same thoughts when he examined my son?"

Ms Yeoman said she attended one of the early appearances in court to see Bradbury and get answers, but said when he looked at her he quickly turned away.

"All I want is justice to be served for all those children that he has affected," said Ms Yeoman.

"When you see how ill those children are and the effects the drugs and everything else have on them, for him to do things like that is just the lowest of the low."

Declan's condition deteriorated in the 18 months that he battled leukaemia

Addenbrooke's Hospital said it had contacted 800 families of the children it was aware of that Dr Bradbury saw. Since his guilty plea, it has received another 29 calls to its specialist helpline set up for people affected by the case, taking the total to 189 so far.

Dr Keith McNeil, chief executive, said: "Our most abject and sincere apologies go out to any and all of our patients and their families who are affected by this in any way.

"There is a very ancient and sacred trust that exists between a doctor and his patients, and quite frankly, it sickens me to think that trust has been breached."