Pete Burns Wins Plastic Surgery Lawsuit

Created on 05th September 2009

Singer Pete Burns has won £450,000 in an out of court settlement after suing his former plastic surgeon.

Burns, 49, has had a number of cosmetic surgery procedures on his face including lip implants, but it was when he went to have his lip fillers topped up that the problems with his surgery started.

In 2000 he visited Dr Maurizio Viel at the London Centre for Aesthetic Surgery - originally for treatment to correct problems associated with a previous implant in his lips. However, from 2002 Dr Viel started injecting Mr Burn's lips with a filler called Outline Original, despite product warnings that it shouldn't be used in conjunction with other fillers.

Burns said that the cosmetic surgery had left his looking like he'd been 'mutilated with a Stanley knife'.

'As I looked in the mirror it felt like everything I had worked for was ruined due to the disabling injuries I suffered caused by Dr Maurizio Viel,' he said. 

'I am just glad the case is now over.

'It is a terrible experience living with the trauma and worry of injury and disability and to have to re-live and recount the details and circumstances of how your injuries happened for the purposes of evidence for the court.'

Eventually Burns went to Italy where he has more than 100 operations by cosmetic surgery specialists in Genoa in order to try and correct the problem.

Dr Viel admitted negligence over the plastic surgery case, centred mainly around the fact that he had failed to pay attention to the warning's of the manufactures of the product.

Burns said that the botched cosmetic surgery had ruined his life and his career and left him feeling suicidal. He claimed that the treatment left him so disfigured that he could only drink through a straw, that he couldn't eat properly and that he had to turn down numerous recording opportunities because he couldn't sing. 

His solicitor Auriana Griffiths, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: 'Pete's life and career have been severely affected as a result of this negligence.

'He required more than 18 months of corrective plastic surgery in Italy to try to remove the product from his lips.

'Unfortunately, it is likely he will suffer further flare ups in the future for which he will require further treatment.

'However, Pete is relieved finally to be able to put this ordeal behind him at last. It has been an incredibly difficult time for him.'