[Red Moon]

Pete Burns to get £1m from the doctor who gave him a trout pout

Pop star Pete Burns is in line for a £1million payout after a surgeon admitted botching cosmetic surgery on his lips, which ‘wrecked his career and life’.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant said he suffered horrific side effects from the ‘trout pout’, including painful swelling and blisters so severe he could not eat, drink or speak.

He claims he was left with weeping sores, felt suicidal and looked so ‘physically repulsive’ he could not leave the house for seven months.

Since the disastrous treatment by Dr Maurizio Viel, Mr Burns has undergone more than 100 further operations by specialists in Italy in an attempt to correct the damage, but has said he fears he will always be disfigured.

The flamboyant singer, who found fame in Eighties band Dead Or Alive, is guaranteed to receive damages after lawyers acting for the Harley Street doctor admitted liability on his behalf.

His lawyers claim the pro-collagen filler Outline was repeatedly injected at the London Centre for Aesthetic Surgery between 2000 and 2004 without testing for adverse reactions to other medications and that Dr Viel failed to warn Mr Burns adequately of the possible side effects.

Mr Burns, 49, has said: ‘It has taken away my life and my career. I saw doctors in London who said the only option was to amputate my lips. I was suicidal.’

His barrister, Harriet Jerram, told the High Court last week that aside from the physical and psychological damage, Burns - who starred in Big Brother in 2006 - also suffered financial losses because he had to sell his music back catalogue as he was unable to work.

He claims his career would have been at its peak if not for the botched surgery, as he was about to record with the Pet Shop Boys and pursue a number of solo projects as well as launch a greatest hits album.

Mr Burns, who earlier this year split from his civil partner Michael Simpson, is understood to believe the Outline injections reacted badly with silicone from a chin implant, one of the many other cosmetic procedures he has had to transform his looks in what he terms ‘extreme appearance experiments’.

Dr Viel is also accused of administering an ‘excessive’ number of follow-up injections, contrary to the guidance given on the use of Outline.

Miss Jerram told the High Court that after taking expert advice, Dr Viel’s lawyers admitted liability in relation to the administration of Outline. But she added that there remains an issue over whether the treatment was only ‘partially responsible’ for the pop star’s suffering.

Dr Viel also faces negligence allegations in relation to an ‘upper lip lift’ procedure on Mr Burns in February 2004 - which the singer said left him looking as if he had been ‘mutilated with a Stanley knife’.

The star’s lawyer argued that there had been a ‘lack of informed consent’ to the procedure and claimed it was carried out ‘when the defendant knew, or ought to have known, it was not in the claimant’s best interests’.

Those issues, along with the exact value of Mr Burns’s claim, will be decided at a High Court hearing next March. A spokesman for Mr Burns’s solicitors Irwin Mitchell said: ‘We do not wish to comment at this stage.’

Last night representatives for Dr Viel declined to comment.

Source:Daily Mail