A Toronto courtroom heard closing arguments Monday in the lengthy trial of Dr. Roger Perrault, the former head of the Canadian Red Cross who is at the centre of the tainted blood scandal.

Crown Attorney Michael Burnstein argued Perrault was negligent, while defence lawyers called the Crown's case "puffery without substance" and a "distortion of the historical record."

Perrault is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm. He is accused of allowing infected blood products to be given to patients in the 1980s and early 1990s.

David Page, a spokesman for the Canadian Hemophilia Society, said the defence lawyers painted Perrault and other doctors accused in the case as "upstanding citizens who have absolutely nothing to blame themselves for.

"I know some of the facts. It wasn't hindsight," Page said. "There was a risk there from this one particular product that needed to be removed from the market and it wasn't and so I think it's very unjust to say these people had no responsibility."

The tainted blood scandal stretches back more than 20 years, when blood patients, many of them hemophiliacs, received blood transfusions from the Red Cross and started to get sick.

As a result, the Krever inquiry was launched — a four-year probe into the Red Cross and how the tainted blood products were allowed to be distributed.

'Put the fear of God into them'

In light of Krever's findings, the RCMP launched its own criminal investigation. After five years, charges of criminal negligence were filed against Perrault and several other doctors.

The charges were laid in 2002, but there were several delays because of questions about Perrault's fitness to stand trial. He has suffered several serious medical problems. His trial began in November, 2005.

Victim James Kreppner said he's not interested in revenge, but he hopes Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto's verdict in October will keep such a thing from happening again. The 45-year-old hemophiliac received contaminated blood in 1985, and is now dying of HIV and Hepatitis C.

"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about the next 10,000 people that come through with some new disease that no one has even heard [of] as of today," said Kreppner.

"I really want to do everything we can to put the fear of God into them to be extra careful to make sure that doesn't happen."