A DAD-OF-THREE who contracted hepatitis C via a blood transfusion said he is ecstatic to have won a ruling allowing him and other victims to launch a High Court group action seeking damages over contaminated blood products.

David Fielding from Morris Green, was given blood infected with the virus in 1990 as part of his treatment for haemophilia - a disorder that impairs the body’s ability to clot blood effectively.

His brother Brian, who contracted HIV from blood he received for the same condition, died in 1990, aged 46.

A High Court official said it was "appropriate" to immediately issue a group litigation order allowing a potential 500 claimants - surviving victims of contamination and the families of the deceased - to join together to claim compensation.

Mr Fielding said of the ruling: "I cannot say how over the moon I am about the ruling.

"We have been sticking the knife into the department of health and they have been sticking it in right back. We have been promised so much and let down time and time again.

"This has been one hell of a long and painful ride for a lot of us. We know there has been wrong doing, we know there has been a massive cover up.

"I have been fighting for this since I was diagnosed in 1993.

"It is sad really that I was given this second chance of life and I have spent it fighting for compensation.

"Hopefully it will come some way to my brother being able to rest in peace."

The case concerns imported blood-clotting products derived from blood plasma which caused haemophiliacs and others to be infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 80s and has so far led to the deaths of at least 2,400 NHS patients.