The doctor at the centre of the Alder Hey scandal claims he never knowingly removed organs from children without their parents' consent but the explanation has been rejected as patronising and arrogant by the father of one the children.
In an interview with BBC news in Amsterdam, where he refused to go on camera but allowed his voice to be taped, Prof Dick van Velzen said: "I've never taken organs without parents' permission."
"I have carried out post-mortems, either with parental consent or on behalf of a coroner. People forgot to tell the parents what the post-mortem actually is. It's terrible. It's not my fault," he said.
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But the acting chair of the Alder Hey Support Group today said Prof van Velzen was both patronising and arrogant in his attitude to parents.
Mr Ed Bradley - whose daughter Niamh died in 1990 aged 38 days - also said he was confused by the pathologist's reference to "international protocol" and the stripping of entire organs systems.
"He speaks about following international protocol and I haven't got a clue what he means by that," said Mr Bradley from his home on Merseyside.
"All I know is that under British law, you cannot remove organs from the body without explicit consent or on the order of the coroner."
Mr Bradley was sceptical about the professor's assertions he believed he had consent to strip organs from the young patients.
Prof van Velzen said he inherited a run-down dilapidated system when he started work at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.
He said: "The support that was needed, that was promised, that was agreed to by NHS management... The support to re-establish care for parents in that hospital where it had been absent for years... That was not forthcoming.
"That was not my choice. That was the management's choice. The main apology I can offer parents is that I have not resigned on their behalf earlier."
Mr Bradley said while he rejected Prof van Velzen's protestations he believed others should also shoulder some of the blame.
Police are investigating possible criminal charges against the pathologist over organ retention at Alder Hey. A warrant has also been issued for his arrest in Canada after children's organs were found in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he went after leaving Liverpool.
Prof van Velzen is under police protection in the Netherlands.
PA