Moving testimonies from people infected with HIV and hepatitis have been heard at the start of the inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal.

The public inquiry in London is examining how thousands of NHS patients were given infected blood products during the 1970s and 1980s.

In some cases blood brought into the UK from the US was donated by prisoners and drug addicts who were paid.

Campaigner Bruce Norval was infected by Hepatitis C and started showing signs of the virus when he was just five years old.

He said: "The level and scale of this is so horrific that I ultimately think that there will be no closure for the bereaved and those of us who are still alive.

"But what there will be will be a way of testing whether the state has acted responsibly and whether or not there has been an adequate amount of support for victims."

As a result of the scandal 2,400 people died, 4,670 people contracted Hepatitis C and 1,243 people contracted HIV.

In Scotland the 2015 Penrose Inquiry was branded a whitewash when it published its findings in 2015.

The UK probe, which is expected to last two years, will begin to hear evidence in April.