Greater Manchester Serial Killers: Harold Shipman, Doctor Death - Manchester Evening News News Greater Manchester Serial Killers: Harold Shipman, Doctor Death In the third of our series on Greater Manchester's serial killers, we focus on Hyde GP Dr Harold Shipman and his loyal widow, maintaining a grim silence about the man who murdered at least 215 of his patients Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe View gallery In the third of our series on Greater Manchester's serial killers, we focus on Hyde GP Dr Harold Shipman and his loyal widow, maintaining a grim silence about the man who murdered at least 215 of his patients. By Paul Taylor IT IS a house not even the most optimistic estate agent would relish trying to sell. With its brickwork exposed by peeling pebbledash, the cottage looks unloved and unlovely. The effect isn’t helped by its position just yards from one of Britain’s busiest roads. The A1 is obscured from view by a large fence that casts a long, dark shadow but doesn’t hide the noise of incessant traffic. Worse still, looming above the cottage is a flyover, and every passing lorry shakes the building beneath.

It’s hard to imagine anyone making a home here. Yet that’s exactly what Primrose Shipman, the widow of Britain’s most prolific serial killer, Dr Harold Shipman, has done. And it’s here she maintains her silence. She has always steadfastly refused to acknowledge her husband of 37 years was a mass murderer. Nor has she ever publicly expressed any sympathy for his victims or their families. Instead, she has stayed quiet and sought to shield herself from public view. For that purpose alone, this isolated cottage in North Yorkshire is perfect. It’s a long way from the comfortable home she once shared with her husband and their four children in Mottram, close to Shipman’s surgery in Hyde. Back then he was known as the respectable local doctor with a friendly bedside manner. His wife was his loyal companion and part-time receptionist. That pleasant life erupted when it emerged the dependable doctor had been killing his patients. Convicted of murdering 15 people, a report later concluded Shipman was responsible for at least 215 deaths over a 25 year period. The trusted GP was transformed into one of the most notorious murderers the world has ever known. Once he was jailed, Primrose left Mottram.

Her present house is close to her childhood home and the prison her husband was held in. She would visit him regularly, the couple often seen holding hands. Only death tore them apart. Shipman took his own life in 2004. Found hanging in his cell, his suicide dashed any hopes the families of those he killed had of discovering why he committed such atrocities. His widow has never shown any indication she could –or would – offer an explanation. Knocking at her door she answered it quickly with a quizzical ‘Yes?’, looking older and greyer but still recognisable. Told that the Manchester Evening News wanted to speak to her, she closed the door quickly. The woman who shared Harold Shipman’s life is determined not to offer any clues as to why her husband killed so many innocent people. “It still annoys me that she has never apologised or even acknowledged his guilt,” says Joe Kitchen, whose 70-year old mother, Chrissy, was one of Shipman’s victims. ”I bumped into her at court once. She smiled at me and said ‘hello’. I found that amazing. Her husband murdered my mother. “An apology would be appreciated. It would mean a lot to the people of Hyde.

It would bring some closure.” Joe says he still feels the pain of the loss. His mother died in 1994 after a home visit from Shipman. “She had lots of sisters who all lived well into their nineties. She was only 70. He robbed her of 20 years. He robbed us of 20 years with her. “I’m convinced she’d still be alive now. She lived for her family. She put her children first. She’s got grand-children she’s never seen.” Joe confesses he feels a strange sort of guilt about his mother’s death. At the time, the circumstances around her passing seemed odd. She’d called Shipman out because she was feeling unwell. The doctor told her family she’d suffered a stroke but had refused hospital treatment. Joe’s brother discovered her dead on the settee. “I remember being suspicious about it all. I even said to my brother we should be suing Shipman. “But you bury your suspicions and you let it go. He was the family doctor and we all knew him well. Only in hindsight do you connect the small things and realise what must have gone on. “I regret not speaking out.

If I had done so maybe people would have been saved.” It was Shipman’s solid reputation as a local GP which protected him while he carried out his killing spree. Known to family and friends as Fred, Shipman was liked and respected by thousands of patients. Joe adds: “He would come out any time in the night. He was always on call at weekends. It’s difficult to say, knowing he killed my mother, but he seemed so caring.” Coun John Bell, a Hyde councillor for 33 years says: “When detectives first went into his surgery, people were quick to defend him. They’d say things like ‘Leave Fred alone, he’s not done this’. “People wouldn’t accept his guilt. But then the evidence started coming out and it quickly became clear he was indeed guilty of something truly terrible. Then the mood in Hyde was total disbelief.” It became apparent the doctor entrusted to care for his patients was in fact murdering them, mostly by injecting them with fatal doses of diamorphine. Shipman preyed on the vulnerable, usually, but not exclusively, choosing women living alone as his victims. They were generally elderly but not seriously ill.

His oldest victim was a 93-year-old woman and the youngest a 41-year-old man. Originally arrested in 1998, he was convicted in 2000 and given 15 life sentences. Five of the people he was found guilty of killing lived on the same street. Nine lived in the same sheltered housing complex. How and why did a GP become a killer who struck time after time with no obvious motive? There are no definitive answers to such questions, despite an extensive investigation and a wide-ranging inquiry into his crimes. Dame Janet Smith led the Shipman Inquiry, conducted in Manchester Town Hall. Her aim was to ensure never again could a doctor get away with murdering his patients. Changes have been made but not everyone is satisfied. “Not all of Dame Janet’s recommendations have been accepted,” says Joe Kitchen. “That feels like a betrayal of the families. We still have concerns about the openness of the medical profession. It still investigates itself and patients are not told if the person treating them has committed a crime. “It’s a serious disappointment the government didn’t adopt all the recommendations.” Joe is still registered with the same GPs’ surgery – now housed in a new building and led by a new doctor.

Residents of Hyde have slowly started to trust medical professionals again, he says. “It’s a stronger community today, there’s no doubt about that. The people of Hyde have coped with whatever has been thrown at them, however difficult.” But will they ever know what drove the doctor they trusted to kill the people he was paid to care for? That seems increasingly unlikely. At her home the woman who may have some answers, remains resolutely silent. She lives off her husband’s pension, which she has received ever since his suicide. Occasionally, she’s seen driving around in her small, battered car. But, in the main, she leads a reclusive life, out of sight and far away from the place where the man she loved caused such devastation. Like us on Facebook Most Read Most Recent BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Q&A: Shipman murders Q&A: Shipman murders Shipman preyed in particular on elderly women who lived alone Seven doctors face charges of serious professional misconduct over alleged failures that allowed Harold Shipman to murder more than 200 people undetected. BBC News Online looks at the background to the Shipman case and why medical experts decided to investigate the doctors. Q: What was Harold Shipman convicted of?

Family GP Harold Shipman was jailed for life in 2000 for murdering 15 of his patients and forging the will of one of them. A public inquiry later decided the 57-year-old had killed at least 215 patients over 23 years while practising in Hyde, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire. He died in January this year after hanging himself in his prison cell, leaving the families of his victims no explanation for his acts. The high court judge who led the Shipman Inquiry said the GP, who injected many of the patients with fatal doses of diamorphine, may have been "addicted to killing". Q: Why do seven other doctors now face charges of serious professional misconduct? The General Medical Council (GMC) launched an investigation into the doctors after criticism in the third Shipman Inquiry report. Six GPs - Dr Peter Bennett, Dr Susan Booth, Dr Jeremy Dirckze, Dr Stephen Farrar, Dr Alistair MacGillivray and Dr Rajesh Patel - will now appear before a GMC professional conduct hearing. A seventh, retired pathologist Dr David Lyle Bee, is also due to face a hearing in September.

The report queried the failure of the GPs, three of whom still practise in Hyde, to notice the high number of Shipman's patients who were dying. The doctors were also criticised for regularly signing off cremation forms for Shipman without the correct checks. Q: How did Shipman's murders remain undetected for so long? By the time he was caught he was killing at a rate of one patient every 10 days, the Shipman Inquiry heard. But the GP preyed on vulnerable people, usually choosing elderly women living alone as his victims, which made it less likely his actions would raise suspicions. He often administered the lethal injections on home visits - and worked for many years as a solo GP, free from the scrutiny of other practice doctors. He was able to stockpile diamorphine by issuing false prescriptions and retaining leftover supplies from patients, helped by an inadequate system for monitoring controlled drugs. Shipman was only investigated after he made a clumsy attempt to forge the will of 81-year-old Kathleen Grundy in 1998 - prompting her daughter to go the police. Q: What did the subsequent police inquiry find? After evidence was found linking Shipman to Mrs Grundy's murder, publicity surrounded the case.

Many other people came forward to Greater Manchester Police with concerns about relatives who had died in similar circumstances. Eventually the police made the difficult decision to exhume bodies for forensic tests, resulting in the 15 murder charges. Q: What has been done to prevent what Shipman did occurring again? A system of checks has been put in place which should safeguard patients from the rogue actions of a solo, or single-handed, GP like Shipman. The introduction of primary care groups, which lump together doctors' practices within an area, means GPs no longer work in isolation. The Shipman Inquiry has also called for a drugs inspectorate to be set up to prevent doctors stockpiling controlled drugs as he did. Other recommendations include making it a criminal offence for doctors to prescribe drugs for themselves, as Shipman did when addicted to pethedine in the 1970s. The GMC, which disciplined him but failed to strike him off, said its approach would be different now. The guidelines for doctors signing certificates for causes of death and for cremation have also been under scrutiny. The Killing Fields of Harold Shipman - Telegraph Culture The Killing Fields of Harold Shipman His trusting patients thought him the perfect GP: kindly, capable, caring.

But for 25 years Harold Shipman carried out a relentless campaign of death that claimed hundreds of victims in two small towns. On the eve of a public inquiry into the murders, Nigel Bunyan reveals some of the shocking truths that have emerged By Nigel Bunyan 12:00AM BST 16 Jun 2001 TO the casual eye they are simply two former northern mill towns, each fiercely proud of its traditions, the pair of them separated by a county border and just 20 miles of moorland. Yet Todmorden and Hyde are something much more. For over a period of a quarter of a century they became, in succession, the killing fields of Harold Shipman, Britain's most prolific serial killer. Eighteen months after Shipman was sent down from the dock to serve 15 life sentences for murder , the one-time family GP still h olds the secret of precisely how many of his patients he injected with fatal doses of diamorphine . But on Wednesday in Manchester town hall, Dame Janet Smith, the High Court judge entrusted with the Shipman inquiry, will begin the near-impossible task of both quantifying and explaining a killing spree that stretched, almost unabated, over three decades.

It seems unlikely that she will get any help from Shipman himself. He has chosen, for the time being at least, to remain silent, brooding in his cell at Frankland Prison, Co Durham. Shipman, now 55, is thought to have begun murdering his patients only a few months after taking his first job as a GP. By the time of his eventual arrest in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, close to his home in Mottram, in September 1998, he had succeeded in claiming the lives of several hundred people. The Daily Telegraph has compiled a list of nearly 300 of these victims. Most were women. Yet, contrary to a widespread view of the case, many of them - possibly more than 60 - were men. Our research, the most comprehensive to date, gives a disturbing insight into both the geographical density of Shipman's attacks and their frequency. It also illustrates how many streets, and how many families, were left devastated by his decision to settle among them. It has long been recognised that to fully understand Shipman one needs to identify his first victim.

This murder would have provided the catalyst for those that followed: the moment he breached the moral watershed that took him from simply wishing to kill, to actually doing so. Related Articles 1 February 2000: [UK News] Evil GP may have killed 150 16 Jun 2001 During his trial, the trail went cold in 1985. Since then, however, it has been tracked back at least to 1974. There is an awful possibility that it goes back still further, perhaps to Shipman's time as a houseman at Pontefract General Infirmary, or even to his student days at Leeds University Medical School. Shipman, the son of a Nottingham lorry driver, married his wife, Primrose, while studying in Leeds . They made an odd couple then, as now. Fellow medical students were perplexed by the relationship, not least because of Primrose's timidity and her unexpected early pregnancy with the first of the couple's four children.

Once he had qualified, Shipman spent three years in Pontefract before joining the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden as an earnest, highly regarded assistant principal GP on March 1, 1974. He was 27. Todmorden's new GP bought a large family house in Spring Bank on a wooded hill looking down on what is a gritty, working-class West Yorkshire town. Two months later, on May 10, he signed the very first death certificate of his career for 72-year-old Ruth Highley. She had died, said Shipman, of kidney failure. Mrs Highley was cremated and the documentation that certified the whole process was destroyed long ago, so it is unlikely that the inquiry will find sufficient evidence to prove that she was killed by Shipman. But in Todmorden a deep suspicion about her death persists. Shipman is suspected of killing up to five of his patients in 1974.

On January 25, 1975, he may have murdered three on the same day: Lily Crossley, 74, Elizabeth Pearce, 84, and Robert Lingard, 62, all lived within a few streets of each other. Documentary evidence is scant and the memories of relatives understandably hazy. But in each case Shipman certified the patient dead, and in each case he is thought to have been present both before and shortly after they died. When he called on Lily Crossley, he did so in the role of emergency doctor. During his time in Todmorden, sometimes helping to ferry his children to primary school, sometimes joining other volunteers in the restoration of the Rochdale Canal (Primrose, a childminder, brought sandwiches and brewed tea), Shipman signed a total of 22 death certificates. He also referred 14 other deaths to the coroner. In about 40 per cent of these cases he appears to have been with the patient on the day he or she died. Statistically, this is astounding. GPs are rarely with their patients at such times.

Indeed, a clinical audit prepared by Professor Richard Baker, from the University of Leicester, as part of his Government-commissioned brief to examine the Shipman murders, suggested a national incidence of a mere 0.8 per cent. But the Todmorden killings came to an abrupt halt in the autumn of 1975 when a local chemist expressed concern about the large volume of prescriptions for pethidine signed by Shipman (he had become addicted to the pain-killing drug). The GP's shocked colleagues demanded his immediate resignation, yet felt sufficient compassion, given that they now thought his career was over, to secure him a place as a patient at The Retreat, a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of York. Shipman was fined £600 by magistrates in Halifax after admitting 75 drugs offences, including forgery and possession. He spent six months at The Retreat. With the General Medical Council failing to take any disciplinary action over his conviction, he managed to return to medicine following a 294-day break from practice. His rehabilitation began in Co Durham, where he worked briefly at a family planning centre. A month later, in October 1977, he moved on to the Donneybrook House group practice in Hyde.

The Shipman inquiry will be seeking to establish how he managed to conceal his criminal past so successfully. The Donneybrook practice stands in the centre of Hyde, close to the bus station. Shipman was still only 31 when he started work there. Within a week he is thought to have killed again. His suspected victim was Josephine Carroll, 81, whose home was a short walk away from the surgery. Shipman worked as a partner in the practice for the next 15 years. By the time he left, at the end of May 1992, he had gained a reputation for no-nonsense expertise and a bedside manner that secured him an adoring following. What no one knew at the time was that he had probably killed up to 80 patients while at the Donneybrook practice. When his patients learnt that he was setting up a solo practice at 21 Market Street, less than 100 yards away, many followed him. This suited Shipman. Away from the prying eyes of his Donneybrook colleagues, he knew he could enjoy a freedom he had craved since his arrest in Todmorden.

Unfettered, he roamed the streets of Hyde at will; his patients were glad to welcome him into their homes as a caring, capable and undeniably popular doctor. There is no real pattern to his killing - it was concentrated in the generally narrow, terrace-lined streets of Hyde, wherever he could find an opportunity. By June 24, 1998, when he claimed his last victim, Kathleen Grundy, 81, a former mayoress of the town, he was averaging at least a murder a week. His patients did not even have to be ill to be of interest to Shipman. Over and over again, he gained his thrills by exploiting those who trusted him most. Although psychiatrists diagnosed him as a classic necrophiliac during the exhaustive police investigation, there was never any suggestion that he ever molested his victims. Indeed, a facet of his killings was that the women tended to be found still demurely buttoned up in their day clothes, perhaps sitting in a favourite armchair or else laid out by him on a bed. The act of 'discovering' his victims shortly after he had killed them was important to Shipman.

Sometimes he would send their closest relatives a pre-printed and unsigned sympathy card. His favourite time to watch his patients die was mid-afternoon. Sometimes, though, he would call at their homes on his way to work, and relatives of such victims still have difficulty in comprehending that a few minutes earlier he would have been saying goodbye to his wife and four children. Mrs Grundy, so energetic that her friends thought she had many years yet to live, was a prime example of one of his patients killed on the way to work. Even now, incredible as it may seem, some of his former patients refuse to accept Shipman's guilt, while others decline to report possible murders within their own families for fear of what darkness they might uncover. Few of the streets in Hyde, and few of the town's families, escaped Shipman's attentions. He returned time and time again to particular streets, sometimes even to the same house, in search of fresh victims. It is possible that Shipman killed twice at No 2 Leigh Fold, Hyde. Alice Gorton, 76, died there on August 10, 1979.

Nine years later, on February 15, 1988, a later resident of the same house, Jane Jones, 83, was also found dead. He killed five people in his surgery, without raising the suspicion of his staff. Six residents of Joel Lane, a long street that rises through one of the more affluent parts of Gee Cross, were killed over a period of four years. There were five from St John's Drive, six from Garden Street and nine - including Muriel Ward and her daughter Margaret - whom Shipman murdered in Ogden Court, a warden-controlled home for the elderly. Shipman, who sometimes stole jewellery and other items as 'trophies' to remind him of a murder, was almost caught on a number of occasions before his eventual arrest. Such was his arrogance, in fact, that he may actually have enjoyed such moments; and perhaps even courted them. His first narrow escape is likely to have been as long ago as August 1974, in Todmorden, when Elaine Oswald, three years Shipman's junior at the age of 25, arrived at his surgery to complain of a mild stomach ache.

'It was just so cool having a young attractive doctor there,' she recalls. 'He had very pale blue eyes and looked like the doctors on television.' Shipman told Mrs Oswald - who may yet prove to be the killer's sole survivor - that he needed to take some blood samples. He prescribed Diconal, a synthetic morphine, and suggested she leave her front door open so he could let himself in. Within hours of her return home he did just that. This was a scenario that would repeat itself again and again over the next quarter of a century. Mrs Oswald's last memory before losing consciousness was of seeing her GP approach her with a hypodermic needle in his hand. 'The next thing I know, I'm lying on the floor. There are a lot of people in my bedroom. My mouth's bleeding, there's blood trickling down my mouth. I can't breathe, my ribs are hurting every time I breathe. The people in the room are shaking me, slapping my face. All I wanted to do was sleep, just sleep for ever.' Shipman later claimed she had suffered a severe allergic reaction. He visited her daily in hospital, and later insisted on inviting her and her husband to dinner.

She thought he was her saviour. Only after reading newspaper reports of Shipman's modus operandi did Mrs Oswald, now living in America, suspect he had been disturbed while trying to kill her. When police finally began to investigate Shipman they quickly identified a number of recurring themes. His victims tended to be those who lived alone. Some had visited his surgery shortly before they died. Often they had died in the afternoon. They were found fully dressed in normal day clothes. They trusted him enough to allow him readily into their homes, even if no prior appointment had been made. If he was disturbed, he would feign attempts at resuscitation or pretend to summon an ambulance. Sometimes he was complacent. When he arrived to kill Maria West he failed to realise that one of her friends had already called in for a cup of tea and a chat. The woman was in the bathroom when he arrived. Discretion persuaded her to sit quietly in the kitchen while the doctor examined his patient. Only when the enveloping silence become too much did she venture back into the living-room. Surprised, Shipman bluffed his way out of the situation by saying, 'She's collapsed on me.' She was, of course, already dead.

Once the enormity of what had gone on was realised and the pattern of killings understood, it became remarkably easy for police to identify likely victims. But until then the trust that Shipman enjoyed appeared boundless. Irene Berry, 74, known to her family as 'a very fit woman, not the little old lady people may imagine', was killed by Shipman in 1998. As in so many of his murders, he had decided to make a home visit. Mrs Berry's daughter, Jean Darlington, said of him, 'If Dr Shipman had said, "Have one egg a week", she would have done it. She lived by his word.' Father Denis Maher, the Catholic priest who assisted in the exhumations of six Shipman victims, recalls, 'About a month after he was arrested one of my parishioners said she was glad, saying, "Now I know what happened to my sister 12 years ago." When I asked her why she had not reported it, she replied, "Who would have believed me? If I'd said her own doctor had murdered her, they'd have locked me away." ' In the end it was the sheer number of deaths that began to raise suspicions.

Shipman's Market Street surgery gained a reputation for 'losing' a lot of its patients. Undertakers in particular, and some paramedics, began privately to voice their concerns. The South Manchester coroner, John Pollard, requested a police investigation after being approached by another GP in the town, a counter-signatory to a number of Shipman's death certificates. This investigation, in March 1998, drew a blank. A further three victims, among them Kathleen Grundy, would die because Shipman was not arrested. Ultimately it was left to Shipman himself to make the mistake that would bring about his downfall. For some unfathomable reason he had decided to forge Mrs Grundy's will to inherit her entire £380,000 estate. It was a feeble attempt and the pensioner's daughter, Angela Woodruff, a solicitor, immediately became suspicious. After briefly making her own inquiries, she called in police. Relatives realise that Shipman can never again stand trial, no matter how high the final death toll rises. But they are determined that the Shipman inquiry will clearly identify those whose failings allowed his murderous reign to continue for so long.

Some hope that Primrose Shipman, once one of her husband's receptionists and now living a reclusive life in a Yorkshire village, will be asked to give evidence about his behaviour. Up to now Mrs Shipman has maintained a stubborn silence, even closing the door on detectives when they called at her bungalow home. The bereaved in both Todmorden and Hyde also hope the inquiry will bring them some sort of peace, some acknowledgement of the suffering their families have endured, and some degree of certainty as to whether their relatives were indeed murdered by the family doctor they once trusted so implicitly. Harold Shipman: a chronology | Society | The Guardian Harold Shipman: a chronology Key dates in the case of Britain's most prolific serial killer Staff and agencies Close January 14 1946 Harold Shipman is born on Nottingham's Bestwood council estate. Later, at school, he works his way through the 11-plus into the city's High Pavement Grammar school, where he was known as a loner. 1963 While Shipman is 17 and studying for A-levels, his mother Vera dies at the age of 43 from cancer.

Years later, his bereavement was to prompt speculation that it could have led to his obsession with causing death. 1965 He starts studying at Leeds university medical school. Lodging in nearby Wetherby, he begins going out with farmer's daughter Primrose Oxtoby. She became pregnant and the couple are married during Shipman's first year at university. 1970s He graduates in 1970, becoming a junior houseman at Pontefract General Infirmary in West Yorkshire, before joining his first practice in the Pennines. Later he develops a drug habit, injecting painkillers. When this is discovered, he resigns immediately. He was later fined £600 on drugs and forgery charges. He was not struck off but did receive a warning letter. He undergoes a course of psychiatric treatment and returns to work as a medical officer in Durham. 1979 Shipman begins practising as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester, with partners in the Donneybrook practice. By this time he has four children with Primrose. 1985 Police investigate the possible murder of one of Shipman's patients. But no action is taken against him.

1992 Shipman sets up his own surgery in Hyde's Market Street. March 1998 A local GP expresses concerns about Shipman to a coroner. A police investigation is launched into suspicions surrounding Shipman but he goes on to kill three more patients before he is arrested. June 24 1998 Former mayoress of Hyde Kathleen Grundy dies suddenly at the age of 81. July 1 1998 Hundreds of mourners attend Mrs Grundy's funeral at Hyde chapel, Greater Manchester. August 1 1998 Mrs Grundy's body is exhumed after her daughter, solicitor Angela Woodruff, becomes suspicious over a new will, which leaves everything to Shipman. September 7 1998 Shipman is charged with Mrs Grundy's murder after going to Ashton-Under-Lyne police station for an interview. September 8 1998 Shipman makes the first of many appearances before Tameside magistrates' court in Ashton-under-Lyne, charged with murdering Mrs Grundy and forging her £350,000 will. He is refused bail.

September 21 1998 The body of Joan Melia, 73, who died in June 1998, is exhumed. September 22 1998 The body of Winifred Mellor, 73, who died in May 1998, is exhumed. September 23 1998 The body of Bianka Pomfret, 49, who died in December 1997, is exhumed. October 7 1998 Shipman appears in court again and is charged with murdering Mrs Melia, Mrs Mellor and Mrs Pomfret. October 12 1998 The body of Ivy Lomas, who died in May 1997, aged 63, is exhumed. October 13 1998 The body of Marie Quinn, 67, who died in November 1997, is exhumed. November 10 1998 The body of Irene Turner, 67, who died in July 1996, is exhumed.

November 11 1998 Shipman is charged with the murders of Mrs Quinn and Mrs Lomas. November 12 1998 The body of Jean Lilley, 59, who died in April 1997, is exhumed. December 3 1998 Shipman is charged with the murders of Mrs Lilley and Mrs Turner. December 8 1998 The body of Muriel Grimshaw, 76, who died in July 1997, is exhumed. February 22 1999 Shipman is charged with murdering Mrs Grimshaw and six other patients whose bodies were cremated - Norah Nuttall, 65, who died in January 1998; Laura Wagstaff, 81, who died in December 1997; Maureen Ward, 57, who died in February 1998; Pamela Hillier, 68, who died in February 1998; Marie West, 81, who died in March 1995, and Lizzie Adams, 77, who died in February 1997.

October 5 1999 Shipman goes on trial at Preston crown court charged with murdering 15 patients and forging Mrs Grundy's will. January 31 2000 Shipman is convicted of 15 murders, and of forging Mrs Grundy's will. September 2000 Inquiry ordered. A month later the high court judge Dame Janet Smith is invited to be its chair. June 20 2001 The Shipman inquiry's public hearings begin at Manchester Town Hall. November 16 2001 Shipman's wife Primrose gives evidence to the inquiry, but says she remembers little. July 2002 The first report is published from the Shipman inquiry led by Dame Janet Smith, which finds that he killed at least 215 patients with suspicion over a further 45. July 4 2002 The home secretary, David Blunkett, rules Shipman should serve "whole life" tariff, condemning him to death behind bars. July 14 2003 The Shipman inquiry's second and third reports are published.

The former criticised two Greater Manchester police officers for an initial, flawed investigation into Shipman that raised no concerns five months before he was caught. The latter called for an overhaul of the system of certifying deaths, coroners and cremation after Shipman's actions had gone undetected for so long. January 13 2004 Shipman is found hanging in his cell in Wakefield prison at 6.20am and pronounced dead around two hours later, having apparently committed suicide. The prisons minister, Paul Goggins, said the prisons and probation ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, would carry out an investigation. July 15 2004 The Shipman inquiry's fourth report is published. It calls for stringent controls on the use and stockpiling of controlled drugs such as diamorphine, which Shipman used to kill at least 214 of his victims. December 9 2004 The fifth report on the regulation and monitoring of GPs criticises the General Medical Council for failing in its primary task of looking after patients, because it was too involved in protecting doctors.

January 27 2005 The sixth and final report concludes that Shipman had killed 250 patients and may have begun his murderous career at the age of 25, within a year of finishing his medical training. August 25 2005 The investigation into Shipman's own death concludes that it "could not have been predicted or prevented". But the report by the prisons and probation ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, criticises jail staff over their handling of the mass murderer in the weeks prior to his death.

Topics Inquiry about Greater Manchester police's behaviour is one of three arising from whistleblower's allegations Published: 17 Mar 2014 Lead detective reveals scale of investigation, which will be pursued under 1989 gross negligence manslaughter law Published: 11 Sep 2013 'We cannot be sure that this was the only incident of its kind' Published: 16 Jul 2011 Strathclyde police says it is taking over 'primary responsibility for security at Olympic venues' including the Hampden Park Published: 20 Jul 2012 Shipman's Hyde colleague warns of malicious GP risk - BBC News BBC News Shipman's Hyde colleague warns of malicious GP risk By Peter Marshall BBC Inside Out, North West 19 July 2010 Close share panel Image caption Shipman killed at least 215 patients, an inquiry found A doctor who worked alongside serial killer Harold Shipman has told the BBC there is still scope for wrongdoing within the medical profession. Dr Raj Patel, who still works in Hyde, believes that a malicious doctor could still exploit weaknesses in GP systems - 10 years after Shipman was jailed.

Dame Janet Smith, who chaired the Shipman inquiry, also said more still needed to be done to protect patients. Shipman was jailed in January 2000 for murdering 15 of his patients. A subsequent inquiry decided he had killed at least 215 people over a period of more than 20 years, making him the UK's most prolific serial killer. Shipman exploited weaknesses in death certification and other systems used by GPs to avoid detection. Ten years on from his imprisonment, Shipman's Market Street surgery in the Greater Manchester town is now a thriving business. Dr Patel works over the road in the Brooke Surgery. I certainly note that there could be potential for some wrongdoing by a healthcare professional or even a carer Dr Raj Patel, Hyde GP Shipman 'thought he was a god' Are patients safer after Shipman? Shipman response 'lacks progress' As a young GP he occasionally stood in for Shipman as a locum and counter-signed many of his cremation forms - Shipman lied on those forms to avoid alerting the authorities to his crimes. When the Shipman Inquiry highlighted weaknesses in that system, doctors at the Brooke Surgery say they tightened procedures almost overnight.

Anyone counter-signing a form would always speak to a relative or carer of the deceased and always examine medical records. "We decided that we did not have to wait for the authorities to write legislation," said Dr Patel. "We determined, as a group of doctors, if we decided we would behave differently around particularly cremation then we could effect that change very quickly." But it was not until January 2009 that the government introduced a more stringent cremation form nationally. But new tighter checks before a body is cremated do not apply to burials. Image caption Dr Raj Patel said his colleagues did not wait for legislation changes "The fact that the body is retrievable is an important factor for the process for burial to be more simple," Dr Patel added. "However, I certainly note that there could be potential for some wrongdoing by a healthcare professional or even a carer." It is a fear echoed by Dame Janet Smith, the senior judge who chaired the Shipman Inquiry. In an exclusive BBC interview, she said the inquiry, which concluded its reports in 2005, had still not achieved as much as she had hoped. "We haven't moved at all on basic death certification. It's exactly the same.

There hasn't been any further work done since I moved off it in 2003," said Dame Janet. Wholesale reform For more than 20 years, Shipman used the drug diamorphine to kill patients both in their homes and at his surgery. He was jailed for life in January 2000 and committed suicide in prison in 2004. In 2003, her inquiry recommended wholesale reform of death certification to make it less dependent on the honesty of a single doctor. A single system covering burials and cremations, recommended by the inquiry, is yet to be implemented, although cremation forms have been made more stringent. The government has said its new Coroners' and Justice Act, which includes plans for medical examiners to scrutinise death certificates, will help prevent a repeat of Shipman's killings. "The act cannot function until secondary legislation in the form of rules have been prepared and brought into force," said Dame Janet. "And that hasn't happened yet. That will take another year or two at least." The Department of Health has insisted that the majority of recommendations from the Shipman Inquiry have been implemented with the aim of improving the quality and safety of patient care.

"Reforming the process of death certification requires changes to primary and secondary legislation - this takes time." said a spokesman. "We've already made changes to primary legislation and decisions on priorities for this area will be made in the coming weeks." Revalidation of doctors The Shipman Inquiry was also highly critical of the General Medical Council's (GMC) approach to managing dangerous and incompetent doctors. Dame Janet said the GMC's initial plans for revalidation - a process of assessing and re-licensing doctors - amounted to a "rubber stamp". However, despite her recommendation for a robust evaluation of a doctor's fitness to practice, this has still not happened. GMC chief executive Niall Dickson admitted that convincing the profession had been a slow process. "I certainly think some older doctors found it a threatening process," he said. "I know there will inevitably be frustration with how slowly the system moves and I can understand that. I think people who've seen system failure leading to the loss of a relative have genuine anger at how slowly things operate.

"The only assurance I can give sitting where I am now is that our commitment to drive through a regular checking system for doctors is absolute and I will do everything I can both to see the system launched and delivered." The BBC Inside Out North West special - Shipman: When Doctors Kill - is broadcast on BBC One on Monday 19 July at 1930 BST. BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Shipman inquiry criticises police Shipman inquiry criticises police Shipman killed at least 215 of his patients in Hyde and Todmorden Three of Harold Shipman's victims could have been saved if police had investigated properly, the inquiry into Britain's worst serial killer has said. The two Greater Manchester Police detectives who investigated the doctor were inexperienced and unfit to handle the case, the inquiry found. As a result they missed many opportunities to bring Shipman's crimes to light. "If the police and the coroner had moved with reasonable expedition, the lives of Shipman's last three victims would probably have been saved," said Dame Janet Smith, the judge heading the inquiry.

Click here for a map charting how the killings gathered pace She also called for "radical reform" of the way coroners work in England and Wales, after Shipman managed to evade their scrutiny by saying his victims had died of natural causes. If the police and the coroner had moved with reasonable expedition, the lives of Shipman's last three victims would probably have been saved Dame Janet Smith Greater Manchester Police apologised to the families of Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy whose lives the judge said could have been saved. Dame Janet's findings were welcomed by victims' relatives as "thorough" and "long overdue". The initial police inquiry was triggered when another GP raised concerns Shipman might have been killing his patients. Two officers "found no cause for concern" and ended their inquiry after three weeks. The senior officer, Chief Superintendent David Sykes, was "unable to give effective leadership" but did not do anything about it, Dame Janet said. And the junior officer, Detective Inspector David Smith, was "out of his depth" and made "many mistakes" but did not ask for help and later lied to cover them up, she said.

Mistakes 'acknowledged' In particular, Mr Smith missed the chance to order post-mortems on two suspected victims which would have led to a full investigation, she said. An internal policy inquiry after Shipman's trial into the two officers' investigation was also "quite inadequate", she said. Only once the Shipman Inquiry began did the force carry out a thorough internal inquiry into Mr Smith's investigation and finally admit it had been "seriously flawed". Kathleen Grundy was one of the victims that could have been saved Relatives said the inquiry would go some way to preventing such systematic murder happening again. "The police made terrible misjudgements and today it's been brought into the public arena," said Barry Swann, whose mother Bessie was killed by Shipman in 1997. "It could happen again, but as long as these recommendations are taken on board it will go a long way to stop it." Suzanne Brock, whose grandmother Edith was killed by Shipman in 1995, said she was "extremely pleased" at the thoroughness of the investigation. Both said they would await Dame Janet's final report before deciding whether to take action against police or anyone else.

Misconduct probe Changes to police practice had already been made, said Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Dave Whatton. "The basic problem was that the wrong people were in charge... this sort of thing will not happen again," he said. Mr Smith was already under investigation for misconduct over this inquiry, he added. Home Secretary David Blunkett said he took the criticisms of the police "extremely seriously" and was awaiting a full report by the force. Home office officials were working with the police to improve the investigation of alleged wrongdoing by health professionals, he said. SHIPMAN'S VICTIMS At least 215, possibly many more Shipman convicted of murdering 15 Oldest victim - Ann Cooper, 93, of Hyde, Greater Manchester Youngest victim - Peter Lewis, 41, of Briardene, Denton Mr Blunkett said other recommendations, including changes to coroners' practices, death registration and cremation certification processes, were already being studied. Shipman, 57, was jailed for life in January 2000 at Preston Crown Court for murdering 15 of his patients.

The deaths of hundreds more were investigated at the public inquiry at Manchester Town Hall, which found he had killed at least 215 people and probably more. His oldest victim was 93, his youngest 41. He killed over a period of more than 20 years until 1998, mostly with injections of morphine. The inquiry's final reports, on controlled drugs, and disciplinary systems and complaints, are expected next year. Harold Shipman - MEN News Harold Shipman Harold Shipman was a doctor convicted of murdering 15 of his patients by injecting them with diamorphine. He had a GP surgery at 21 Market Street in Hyde. Fellow doctors and funeral directors grew suspicious of the high death rate among his patients. In 2000 Shipman was jailed for life. He was found hanging in his cell in 2004. The Shipman Inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, said he could have killed 250 people. The review led to major changes in health care. True Crime XL: Dr. Harold Shipman Dr. Harold Shipman Raising the Dead Harold Shipman (AP) His patients- mainly elderly women- were living alone and vulnerable.

They adored their doctor, Harold "Fred" Shipman. Even when their contemporaries began dying in unusually high numbers, patients remained loyal to the murderous M.D. For as long as he spared them, his victims loved their doctor to death. No film director could plan a grislier scene. In the dead of a black August night, relentless rains and driving winds formed the perfect backdrop for an exhumation. But this was no psychological thriller the Manchester police were observing a real-life drama.� Experts were raising the mud-streaked coffin of wealthy Kathleen Grundy. Interred just 5 weeks earlier in the Hyde cemetery, the 81-year-old ex-mayoress held, in death, the key to solving nearly 400 murders. This would give killer Dr. Harold Shipman the dubious distinction of being the greatest serial murderer the world has ever known. It puts him well ahead of modern history's most prolific serial killer to date Pedro ("monster of the Andes") Lopez. Convicted of 57 murders in 1980, Lopez allegedly killed 300 young girls in Colombia.

55-year-old Shipman is already serving 15 consecutive life sentences in Frankland Prison, County Durham, plus four years for forging the will of his last victim, Kathleen Grundy. In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he continues to maintain his innocence. How could this prolific serial killer go undetected for so long? And what made him the monster he became? The answers lie in a story that began in earnest over fifty years ago in a government-owned red brick terrace house in the north of England. A Killer's Childhood Born into a working class family on June 14, 1946, Harold Frederick Shipman, called Fred or Freddy, knew a childhood far from normal. He maintained a distance between himself and his contemporaries mainly due to the influence of his mother, Vera. � This distance was to manifest itself in later years. One neighbor notes, "Vera was friendly enough, but she really did see her family as superior to the rest of us. � Not only that, you could tell Harold (Freddy) was her favorite the one she saw as the most promising of her three children." Vera decided who Harold could play with, and when.

� She wanted to distinguish him from the other boys he was the one who always wore a tie when the others were allowed more casual dress. His sister Pauline was seven years older, his brother Clive, four years his junior. � But in his mother's eyes, Harold was the one she held the most hope for. As a student, Shipman was comparatively bright in his early school years, but rather mediocre when he reached upper school level. Nonetheless, he was a plodder determined to succeed, even when it meant re-sitting his entrance examinations for medical school. Strangely, he had every opportunity to be part of the group he was an accomplished athlete on the football field and the running track. � In spite of this, his belief in his superiority appears to have precluded forming meaningful friendships with his contemporaries. And there was something else that isolated him from the group. � His beloved mother had terminal lung cancer. As she wasted away, Harold willingly played a major supportive role. Watching Vera Die Much has been made of the way young Harold Shipman dealt with his mother's final months justifiably so. � Because his behavior then closely paralleled that of Shipman the serial killer.

Every day after classes, he would hurry home, make Vera a cup of tea and chat with her probably about his day at school.�� She counted the minutes as she waited, and found great solace in his company. For his part, this is likely where Shipman learned the endearing bedside manner he would adopt later in his practice as a family physician. � Toward the end, Vera experienced severe pain. � But, because pumps to self-administer painkillers did not exist at that time, Vera's sole relief from the agony of cancer came with the family physician. No doubt young Harold watched in fascination as his mother's distress miraculously subsided whenever the family doctor injected her with morphine. As the disease progressed, the already trim Ms. Shipman grew thinner and frailer until, on June 21st 1963, the cancer claimed her life. Vera's death left her son with a tremendous sense of loss. � After all, his mother was the one who made him feel special, above the rest. � Significantly, her passing left him with an indelible image the patient with a cup of tea nearby, finding sweet relief in morphine.

Etched upon the 17-year-old's mind, it was a scene he would re-create hundreds of times in the future. And when it happened, he would be a doctor one with no regard for human life or feeling. Invisible Student Two years after his mother died, Harold Shipman was finally admitted to Leeds University medical school. � Getting in had been a struggle. In spite of his self-proclaimed superiority, he'd had to re-write the exams he'd flunked first time around. � Nonetheless, his grades were adequate enough for him to collect a degree and serve his mandatory hospital internship. It is surprising to learn that so many of his teachers and fellow students can barely remember Shipman. � Some who do remember claim that he looked down on them and seemed bemused by the way most young men behaved. "It was as if he tolerated us. � If someone told a joke he would smile patiently, but Fred never wanted to join in. � It seems funny, because I later heard he'd been a good athlete, so you'd have thought he'd be more of a team player." Most of his contemporaries especially from his earlier years simply remember him as a loner.

They also remember the one place where his personality changed the football field. � Here, his aggression was unleashed, his dedication to win intense. Even so, he was more sociable in medical school than his mother had allowed him to be while living at home. A former teacher said, "I don't think he ever had a girlfriend; in fact he took his older sister to school dances. � They made a strange couple. � But then, he was a bit strange a pretentious lad." But Shipman finally found companionship in a girl and married before most of his contemporaries did. � At nineteen, he met Primrose 3 years his junior. Her background was similar to Fred's. � Her mother restricted her friendships, and controlled her activities. No poster girl, Primrose was delighted to have finally found a boyfriend. � Shipman married her when she was 17 and 5 months pregnant. By 1974 he was a father of two and had joined a medical practice in the Yorkshire town of Todmorden. � In this North England setting, Fred seemed to undergo a metamorphosis; he became an outgoing, respected member of the community in the eyes of his fellow medics and patients.

But the staff in the medical offices where he worked saw a different side of the young practitioner. � He was often unnecessarily rude and made some of them feel "stupid" a word he frequently used to describe anyone he didn't like. He was confrontational and combative with many people, to the point where he belittled and embarrassed them. � He also had a way of getting things done his way even with the more experienced doctors in the practice. Not yet thirty, Shipman had become a control freak. Addiction and Attitude Hard working, and enthusiastic, Shipman fitted well into the social matrix. His senior partners saw him as a Godsend.� One, Dr. Michael Grieve, appreciated Fred's contribution in providing up-to-date information, as he was so recently out of medical school. But his career in Todmorden came to a sudden halt when he began having blackouts.� His partners were devastated when he gave them the reason.� He suffered, he said, with epilepsy.� He used this inaccurate diagnosis as a cover-up. The truth soon surfaced, when practice receptionist Marjorie Walker stumbled upon some disturbing entries in a druggist's controlled narcotics ledger.

The records showed how Shipman had been prescribing large and frequent amounts of pethidine in the names of several patients. Moreover, he'd written numerous prescriptions for the drug on behalf of the practice.� Although this was not unusual (drugs are kept on hand for emergencies and immediate treatments), the prescribed amounts were excessive. Pethidine a morphine-like analgesic was initially thought to have no addictive properties.� Now, some sixty years after scientists first synthesized it, pethidine's non-addictive reputation is still hotly debated.� Following the discovery of Shipman's over-prescribing, a covert investigation by the practice including Dr. John Dacre followed. To his alarm, he discovered many patients on the prescription list had neither required nor received the drug. Dacre challenged Fred in a staff meeting, as one of his partners, Dr.

Michael Grieve recalls: "We were sat round with Fred sitting on one side and up comes John on the opposite and says, 'Now young Fred, can you explain this?'� And he puts before him evidence that he has been gleaning, showing that young Fred had been prescribing pethidine to patients and they'd never received the pethidine, and in fact the pethidine had found its way into Fred's very own veins." Shipman's way of dealing with the problem was to provide an insight into his true personality. Realizing his career was on the line, he first begged for a second chance.� When this was denied, he became enraged and stormed out, hurled a medical bag to the ground and threatened to resign. The partners were dumbfounded by this violent and seemingly uncharacteristic behavior. Shortly afterwards, his wife Primrose stormed into the room where his peers were discussing the best way to dismiss him. Rudely, she informed the people at the meeting that her husband would never resign, proclaiming, "You'll have to force him out!" She was right.� Ultimately he was forced out of the practice and into a drug re-hab center in 1975.

Two years later, his many convictions for drug offences, prescription fraud and forgery cost him a surprisingly low fine just over 600 pounds sterling. Shipman's conviction for forgery is worth noting.� First, because his skill in this area was nothing less than pathetic; second, he failed to learn that his ineptitude in this area was readily exposed.� Yet in spite of this early warning, some 22 years later he actually believed he could get away with faking signatures on a patently counterfeit will that of his last victim, Katherine Grundy. This lack of judgment some say arrogance set in motion the mechanism for his downfall. As for the pethidine charges, the question remains:� Did he really self-inject the drugs (as he claimed) or had he already begun using them to kill unsuspecting patients?� This is currently under review. Back in Business Today, it is unlikely Harold Shipman would be allowed to handle drugs unsupervised, given his previous track record.� Nonetheless, within two years, he was back in business as a general practitioner.

He was accepted into the Donneybrook Medical Center in Hyde in the north of England.� How readily he was accepted demonstrates his absolute self-confidence and his ability to convince his peers of his sincerity. Dr. Jeffery Moysey of the Center explained "His approach was that I have had this problem, this conviction for abuse of pethidine.� I have undergone treatment.� I am now clean. All I can ask you to do is to trust me on that issue and to watch me." Perhaps he was not watched carefully enough. Again, he played the role of a dedicated, hardworking and community-minded doctor. He gained his patients' absolute trust and earned his colleagues' respect. Some of those who worked under him have told of his sarcastic and abusive nature, but he was skilled at masking his patronizing attitude in front of those he chose to impress.� As for any signs of addiction, there were no blackouts as before, and no indication of drug abuse.� In Hyde, Harold Shipman was home free and free to kill. Headstones of Shipman victims at Hyde Cemetery (TIMEPIX) A Diary of Death Because of the nature of the Shipman case, it may never be possible to document every murder he committed.

A clinical audit commissioned by the Department of Health estimates his responsibility for the deaths of at least 236 patients over a 24-year period. This audit, by Professor Richard Baker of the University of Leicester, examined the number and pattern of deaths in Harold Shipman's practice. � It then compared them with those of other practitioners. � Significant differences appeared, notably that the rates of death in elderly patients were disproportionately higher. Other variations appeared; deaths were often clustered at certain times of the day, patients' records and previous symptoms mismatched, and Shipman was usually in attendance.

Professor Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, wrote that these factors "must now be investigated by the proper legal authorities." Detective Chief Superintendent Bernard Postles, who headed the original investigations, said of the report 'many of its conclusions accord with our own findings to date.' He noted the death toll estimated in the audit was "broadly in keeping with the number of deaths investigated by Greater Manchester Police during the course of the investigation." Even so, the final numbers are anyone's guess Coroner John Pollard once speculated "we might be looking at 1000." But whatever the final count, there is no immediate plan to try the killer on future findings nor would it serve much purpose because he's already serving 15 concurrent life sentences. Instead, other cases are being investigated as they come to light, with coroners' verdicts of unlawful killing continuing to mount. � As they do, the question most asked is this: � Why wasn't he stopped sooner? Early Warnings In this macabre and unfinished story, Shipman's former patients are grateful indeed he was finally stopped. The feeling "I could have been next" will always haunt them.

And there is little doubt that some owe their lives to a determined and intelligent woman named Angela Woodruff. Her dogged determination to solve a mystery helped ensure that, on Monday, January 31, 2000, the jury at Preston Crown Court found Shipman guilty of murdering 15 of his patients and forging the will of Angela's beloved mother, Katherine Grundy. But Ms. Woodruff was not the first to realize something was dangerously wrong where Dr. Shipman was involved. Local undertaker Alan Massey began noticing a strange pattern: not only did Shipman's patients seem to be dying at an unusually high rate; their dead bodies had a similarity when he called to collect them. "Anybody can die in a chair," he observed, "But there's no set pattern, and Dr.

Shipman's always seem to be the same, or very similar.� Could be sat in a chair, could be laid on the settee, but I would say 90% was always fully clothed.� There was never anything in the house that I saw that indicated the person had been ill.� It just seems the person, where they were, had died.� There was something that didn't quite fit." Worried enough to voice his unease, Massey decided to confront Shipman, and paid the doctor a visit. Massey recalls, "I asked him if there was any cause for concern and he just said 'no there isn't".� He showed me his certificate book that he issues death certificates in, the cause of death in, and his remarks were 'nothing to worry about, you've nothing to worry about and anybody who wants to inspect his book can do."' Reassured by Shipman's ease at being questioned, the undertaker took no further action.� But his daughter, Debbie Brambroffe also a funeral director was not so readily appeased.� She found an ally in Dr. Susan Booth. Cash for Ash From a neighboring practice, Dr.

Booth had gone to the funeral directors to examine a body.� British law requires a doctor from an unrelated practice to countersign cremation forms issued by the original doctor. They are paid a fee for this service which some medics cynically call "cash for ash." Debbie told Dr. Booth she had misgivings.�� Booth explained, "She was concerned about the number of deaths of Dr. Shipman's patients that they'd attended recently.� She was also puzzled by the way in which the patients were found.� They were mostly female, living on their own, found dead sitting in a chair fully dressed, not in their nightclothes lying ill in bed." Booth spoke to her colleagues.� One of them, Dr. Linda Reynolds contacted coroner John Pollard.� He in turn alerted the police. In a virtually covert operation, Shipman's records were examined and given a clean bill of health because the causes of death and treatments matched perfectly. What the police did not discover was that Shipman had re-written patient records after he killed.� The quality of that investigation has been questioned because the police failed to check for a previous criminal record.� Nor did they make inquiries with the General Medical Council.

Had they done so, Shipman's past record of drug abuse and forgery might well have led to a more thorough approach. But more intense scrutiny was about to blow the Shipman case wide open. Angela Investigates

Question: In which town in Greater Manchester did Harold Shipman practise as a GP before murdering at least 15 of his patients?
Answer: Hyde