Son of a pensioner who died from overdose slams decision not to extradite doctor to UK

German Dr Daniel Ubani will now not face British justice despite being responsible for killing David Gray in 2008. 

The Gray family have been campaigning for the medic to face trial in the UK after a coroner ruled he was unlawfully killed by Ubani, who was working in the UK as an out of hours locum. 

He was prosecuted in Germany but the family called the investigation “flawed” and asked for Ubani to be extradited to face a trial in the UK. 

Today the European Court of Human Rights decided he can stay in Germany in a move slammed as “a green light to charlatans”. 

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Gray's son Stuart, of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said he was "bitterly, bitterly disappointed".

He added: "I think it's got wider ramifications in the UK because it means people can come over from the European Union and not answer to UK law.

"We need to digest this and go back to our lawyers and see if we can lodge an appeal or not.

"He's still licensed to practice out there, we don't know what he's doing."

Mr Gray's other son Rory, who lives in Germany, said: "German authorities convicted him of a minor misdemeanour, there was no hearing, no trial and Ubani never answered for what he's done.

"This is a green light for charlatans to go to other countries and do whatever they like."

Mr Gray had been suffering from renal colic when he was treated by Dr Ubani at his home in Manea, Cambridgeshire on February 16, 2008.

A coroner’s inquest ruled that the 70-year-old was unlawfully killed after Dr Ubani fatally administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Dr Ubani, a 67-year-old Nigerian-born German citizen, was on his first UK shift as a locum when he killed Mr Gray by injecting 100mg of diamorphine.

He admitted he had confused the morphine with another drug.

He has refused to return to the UK and a European arrest warrant was issued by Cambridgeshire Police but could not be carried out because legal proceedings had begun in Germany.

Coroner William Morris described Mr Gray's death as "gross negligence and manslaughter" and said Dr Ubani was "incompetent".

He was struck off in the UK and given a suspended sentence in Germany for death by negligence but is still able to practice there.

In its ruling this morning, the European Court of Human Rights said Ubani did not need to come to the UK. 

The ruling said: "The patient's sons complained that the authorities in Germany, where the doctor was tried and convicted of having caused the death by negligence, had not provided for an effective investigation into their father's death.

"The court accepted that the German trial court had sufficient evidence available to it for the doctor's conviction by penal order without having held a hearing. 

"Moreover, the applicants had been sufficiently informed of the proceedings in Germany, and the German authorities had been justified in not extraditing the doctor to the United Kingdom in view of the proceedings before the German courts."

Mr Gray’s death highlighted national concerns about the standard of locum doctors from abroad working in the UK. 

At a GMC hearing, which struck off Ubani in the UK, the panel was told that Ubani had flown into the UK the day before his 12-hour Cambridgeshire shift for GP service provider Take Care Now, and had only had a few hours' sleep. 

A doctor who gave him an induction expressed concerns that Dr Ubani had no NHS experience, did not know the area, and that he did not have enough time to properly train him.

The doctor had previously not been selected by Leeds Primary Care Trust because he had failed a language test.

But the GMC panel heard evidence that Dr Ubani was competent in spoken English and his employers had no problems understanding him.