Harold Shipman
Harold Frederick Shipman, was an English doctor in general practice and serial killer. He is considered to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, with an estimated 250 victims over roughly 30 years. On 31 January 2000, Shipman was convicted of murdering 15 patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. On 13 January 2004, one day before his 58th birthday, Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman's crimes. It revealed Shipman targeted vulnerable elderly people who trusted him as their doctor, killing them with either a fatal dose of drugs or prescribing an abnormal amount.
Shipman, who has been nicknamed "Dr. Death" and the "Angel of Death", is the only British doctor to have been convicted of murdering patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted of lesser charges. Shipman's case has often been compared to that of doctor John Bodkin Adams; some nurses, such as Beverley Allitt, have also been convicted of murdering patients in their care.
Early life and education
Harold Frederick Shipman was born on 14 January 1946 on the Bestwood Estate, a council estate in Nottingham, the second of three children. His father, also Harold Frederick Shipman, was a lorry driver; his mother was Vera. His working-class parents were devout Methodists.Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of lung cancer when he was aged 17. Her death came in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own modus operandi: in the later stages of her disease, she had morphine administered at home by a doctor. Shipman witnessed his mother's pain subside, despite her terminal condition, until her death on 21 June 1963.
On 5 November 1966, Shipman married Primrose May Oxtoby; the couple had four children. Shipman studied medicine at Leeds School of Medicine, University of Leeds, graduating in 1970.
Career
Shipman began working at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1974 took his first position as a general practitioner 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 and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York. He worked as a GP at Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in 1977.Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and established his own surgery at 21 Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. In 1983, he was interviewed in an edition of the Granada Television current affairs documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community. A year after his conviction on charges of murder, the interview was re-broadcast on Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Detection of murder
In March 1998, Linda Reynolds, a general practitioner at the Brooke Surgery in Hyde, expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had asked to have countersigned. The Greater Manchester Police were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges and closed the investigation on 17 April. The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the GMP for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. After the investigation was closed, Shipman killed three more people. A few months later, in August, taxi driver John Shaw told the police that he suspected Shipman of murdering 21 patients. Shaw became suspicious as many of the elderly customers he took to the hospital, while seemingly in good health, died in Shipman's care.Shipman's last victim was Kathleen Grundy, a former mayoress of Hyde who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. He was the last person to see her alive; he later signed her death certificate, recording the cause of death as old age. Grundy's daughter, solicitor Angela Woodruff, became concerned when fellow solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother, with doubts about its authenticity. The will excluded Woodruff and her children, but left to Shipman. At Burgess' urging, Woodruff went to police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed and found to contain traces of diamorphine, often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman claimed that Grundy had been an addict and showed them comments he had written to that effect in his computerised medical journal; however, police examination of his computer showed that the entries were written after her death.
Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a Brother typewriter of the type used to make the forged will. Prescription for Murder, a 2000 book by journalists Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie, suggested that Shipman forged the will either because he felt his life was out of control and wanted to be caught, or because he planned to retire at age 55 and leave the United Kingdom. Police investigated other deaths that Shipman had certified and investigated fifteen specimen cases. They discovered a pattern of his administering lethal doses of diamorphine, signing patients' death certificates and then falsifying medical records to indicate that they had been in poor health. In addition, an abnormally large number of the deaths occurred around the same time of day and in the doctor's presence.
In 2003, after Shipman had been convicted, a paper by statistician David Spiegelhalter and others found that Shipman's mortality rates had been broadly in line with national rates between 1988 and 1994, and started increasing in 1995. They suggested that statistical monitoring could have led to an alarm being raised at the end of 1996, although not before, when there had already been 67 excess deaths of Shipman's female patients aged over 65, before reaching 119 in 1998, when suspicions were first actually raised.
Trial and imprisonment
Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. He was charged with the murders of fifteen women by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998:Shipman's legal representatives tried unsuccessfully to have the Grundy case tried separately from the others, as a motive was shown by the alleged forgery of Grundy's will.
On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman 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. On 11 February, 11 days after his conviction, Shipman was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners. While authorities could have brought many additional charges, they concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible given the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already imposed rendered further litigation unnecessary. Shipman became friends with fellow serial killer Peter Moore while in prison.
Shipman denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, maintained that he was not guilty, even after his conviction.
Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a 10-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman"; he was acquitted and no further charges were pursued. A historian, Pamela Cullen, has argued that because of Adams's acquittal, there was no impetus to examine potential flaws in the British legal system until the Shipman case.
Death
Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield on 13 January 2004, the day before his 58th birthday. The Medico Legal Centre in Sheffield performed a post-mortem examination, and an inquest was opened.Some of the victims' families said they felt "cheated", as Shipman's suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of a confession, nor answers as to why he committed his crimes. Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted that celebration was tempting: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it."
Shipman's death divided national newspapers, with the Daily Mirror branding him a "cold coward" and condemning the Prison Service for allowing his suicide to occur. However, The Sun ran a celebratory front-page headline; "Ship Ship hooray!" The Independent called for the inquiry into Shipman's suicide to look more widely at the state of UK prisons as well as the welfare of inmates. In The Guardian, an article by General Sir David Ramsbotham, who had formerly served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, suggested that whole-life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing, for this would at least give prisoners the hope of eventual release and reduce the risk of their ending their own lives by suicide, as well as making their management easier for prison officials.
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, though he reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide to assure his wife's financial security after he was stripped of his National Health Service pension. Primrose Shipman received a full NHS pension that she would not have been entitled to if Shipman had lived past the age of 60. Additionally, there was evidence that Primrose, who had consistently protested Shipman's innocence despite the overwhelming evidence, had begun to suspect his guilt. Shipman refused to take part in courses which would have encouraged acknowledgement of his crimes, leading to a temporary removal of privileges, including the right to telephone his wife. During this period, according to Shipman's cellmate, he received a letter from Primrose exhorting him to "Tell me everything, no matter what." A 2005 inquiry found that Shipman's suicide "could not have been predicted or prevented", but that procedures should nonetheless be re-examined.
After Shipman's body was released to his family, it remained in Sheffield for more than a year. His widow was advised by police against burying her husband in case the grave was attacked; the body was eventually cremated at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium, in the city, attended only by Shipman's widow and the couple's four children.