Family slates police over bungled probe into ‘Dr Death’

THE family of one of three women whose lives could have been saved if police had investigated serial killer Harold Shipman properly yesterday labelled the force as “appallingly incompetent.”

Greater Manchester Police apologised to the families of Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy after the Shipman Inquiry ruled that their lives could have been saved by a "properly directed investigation."

But Chief Superintendent David Sykes and Detective Inspector David Smith the officers at the head of the March 1998 inquiry, which failed to uncover any evidence of Shipman's (Dr Death) killing spree, were out of their depth and unfit for the case, it said.