Former family doctor Harold Shipman, sentenced to life imprisonment for 15 murders, in fact killed nearly 300 of his patients, according to an official inquiry whose results may be published this week, press reports said on Monday.
The inquiry headed by Judge Janet Smith into the crimes of Britain’s worst serial killer started off looking into 800 suspect deaths, later reducing the number to 500.
It concluded that Shipman killed around 300 patients in 30 years of practice, the Daily Telegraph said — precisely 297, according to the tabloid Daily Express.
The 55-year-old former doctor based on the fringes of Manchester, northwest England, was jailed for life in January 2000 for murdering 15 elderly patients. Home Secretary David Blunkett ruled on Thursday that he must spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Most of his victims were elderly women killed by an overdose of morphine in their own homes without having experienced any life-threatening symptoms. He pleaded not guilty and his motives remain a mystery.
Blunkett’s decision means Shipman, known as ”Doctor Death”, is likely to die behind bars as cases of whole life inmates are reviewed only after 25 years, and then every five years after that. – Sapa-AFP