Behind the façade of a peaceful Georgian country manor hotel, nestling in 18 acres of rolling Herefordshire grassland, lay a dark secret involving a former medical director of the FBI which last week came to light at a medical board hearing in the US state of Virginia.
There, a shocked board heard how Dr John Hagmann, 59, a former army lieutenant colonel and president of Deployment Medicine Consultants of Gig Harbor, Washington, had allegedly carried out “macabre” experiments on US military students taking his courses.
He was accused of carrying out unethical procedures at his farm in Virginia and also at the Pengethley Manor Hotel at Peterstow, near Ross-on-Wye. The hotel is owned by Ex-Med UK, a company specialising in the sale of medical goods and providing medical support and training in “some of the world’s most challenging locations”.
