An examination of Shipman's life throws up another possible trigger for his crimes. On the night of her death he ran miles through the streets of Nottingham in the pouring rain, tears streaming down his face. It is tempting to link his mother's death with his series of murders. At the trial the prosecution suggested Shipman killed because he enjoyed the sense of power it gave him. The condition takes many more forms than the desire to have sex with a corpse.
Some sufferers simply take pleasure from being in the presence of death.
Necrophiliacs often immerse themselves in the inanimate world, replacing love of people with love of things. When the Shipman review was published yesterday its author Richard Baker said he could not say for certain the Shipman case was unique. David Canter, director of the Centre for Investigative Psychology in Liverpool, raised the chilling possibility that it could be a forerunner of cases to come. The theory is that as the human race in the 21st century thinks of itself increasingly as nothing more than a collection of physical bodies in an evermore materialistic society, then there will be individuals on the extremes who come to believe they are dealing not with people but with objects. Professor Canter believes he may talk.