A breast surgeon has been convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent after carrying out a series of "completely unnecessary" operations.

Ian Paterson, who was also convicted of three counts of unlawful wounding, was described in court by one victim as being "like God", lied to patients and exaggerated - or invented - the risk of cancer to convince them to go under the knife.

The 59-year-old from Glasgow did so for "obscure motives" which may have included a desire to "earn extra money", his trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The surgeon had maintained all the operations were necessary but a jury of six men and five women agreed with the prosecution that Paterson carried out "extensive, life-changing operations for no medically justifiable reason".

Paterson sobbed as the foreman of the jury returned the guilty verdicts, as did his daughter Emily, who was also in court on Friday.

He will be sentenced at a later date.

Jurors were told at the start of the trial they should not conduct any research into the case - and were not told that hundreds of Paterson's patients were recalled in 2012 after concerns about unnecessary or incomplete operations.

The surgeon was suspended by the General Medical Council that same year amid claims he carried out so-called cleavage-sparing mastectomies (CSMs) which led to the recall of more than 700 patients.

Figures revealed the NHS has paid out nearly £18m over the case, of which £9.5m was damages, following claims from nearly 800 patients of Paterson - a fact which the jury were not made aware of during proceedings.