HAROLD Shipman is the only British doctor to be convicted of murdering his patients.
Dubbed Dr Death, he was sentenced to life in prison for his horrific crimes. But who exactly was he?
Harold Shipman was a convicted serial killer[/caption]
Who was Harold Shipman?
Harold Shipman became known for being one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, with an estimated 250 victims.
He was born on January 14, 1946, on the Bestwood Estate, a council estate in Nottingham.
Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of lung cancer when he was aged 17.
On November 5, 1966, he married Primrose May Oxtoby and the couple went on to have four children together.
What did Harold Shipman do for a living?
Shipman worked as a doctor which is how he had access to his victims.
He studied medicine at Leeds School of Medicine, University of Leeds before graduating in 1970.
His work started at Pontefract General Infirmary, Yorkshire, and in 1974 took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden.
The following year, Shipman was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine for his own use.
He was fined £600 and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York.
He continued working as a GP in Manchester and then opened his own surgery at 21 Market Street in 1993.
How was Harold Shipman caught?
Shipman was first investigated in March 1998 when Dr Linda Reynolds expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman’s patients.
She was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had asked to have countersigned.
However, police were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges and closed the investigation on April 17.
After the investigation was closed, Shipman went on to kill three more people.
A few months later, in August, taxi driver John Shaw told the police that he suspected Shipman of murdering 21 patients.
He became suspicious because multiple of the elderly customers he took to the hospital died in Shipman’s care.
Shipman was found to have forged a will and patient notes before being arrested on September 7, 1998.
Who were Harold Shipman’s victims?
Shipman was charged with the murders of 15 women by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998. However, it is thought he may have killed up to 250 people.
These are the 15 people Shipman was convicted of killing, and the dates of the murders:
- Marie West, 81, March 1995
- Irene Turner, 67, July 1996
- Lizzie Adams, 77, February 1997
- Jean Lilley, 58, April 1997
- Ivy Lomas, 63, May 1997
- Muriel Grimshaw, 76, July 1997
- Marie Quinn, 67, November 1997
- Laura Kathleen Wagstaff, 81, December 1997
- Bianka Pomfret, 49, December 1997
- Norah Nuttall, 64, January 1998
- Pamela Marguerite Hillier, 68, February 1998
- Maureen Alice Ward, 57, February 1998
- Winifred Mellor, 73, May 1998
- Joan May Melia, 73, June 1998
- Kathleen Grundy, 81, June 1998
On January 31, 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he be subject to a whole life tariff, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy’s will.
Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients.
The 2002 Shipman Inquiry concluded that he had killed at least 218 of his patients between 1975 and 1998.
In total, 459 people died while under his care between 1971 and 1998, but it is uncertain how many of those were murder victims, as he was often the only doctor to certify a death.
Did Harold Shipman admit to any murders?
However, Shipman continued to deny his crimes, disputing the scientific evidence against him.
He never made any public statements about his actions.
His wife also maintained that he was not guilty, even after his conviction.
What happened to Harold Shipman?
Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield at 6:20 am on January 13, 2004, aged 57.
He was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m.
