Inquiry: Shipman murdered 215

Family GP Harold Shipman murdered 215 of his patients, the judge heading the official inquiry into his crimes said today.

Dame Janet Smith also said there was a ‘‘real suspicion’’ that the doctor, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, could have claimed another 45 victims.

Her first report into Shipman’s killings said that he began murdering patients in 1975, just a year after entering practice in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and claimed all his other victims in Hyde.

The report said that systems which should have safeguarded patients against misconduct failed to operate satisfactorily and that it was ‘‘deeply disturbing’’ that his killings did not arouse suspicion for so many years.

Dame Janet, a High Court judge, who has been hearing evidence since June last year at Manchester Town Hall, delivered decisions in 494 cases.

She decided that the first of Shipman’s victims was Mrs Eva Lyons, who he murdered in March 1975 while at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Practice in Todmorden.

Another 71 patients were killed during Shipman’s time at the Donneybrook House group practice in Hyde, and the remaining 143 were murdered at Shipman’s single-handed practice that he set up in Market Street, Hyde, in 1992.

Of his victims, 171 were women and 44 were men, with the oldest being 93-year-old Ann Cooper and the youngest 41-year-old Peter Lewis.

The judge said in her six-volume, 2,000 page report: ‘‘There are 45 deaths for which I have found that a real suspicion arises that Shipman may have been responsible, although the evidence is not sufficiently clear for me to reach a positive conclusion that he was.

‘‘In addition, there are a further 38 deaths in respect of which there was so little evidence, or evidence of such poor quality, that I was unable to form any view at all.’’

The inquiry examined a total of 888 cases. Dame Janet said there was ‘‘compelling evidence’’ in 394 of them that Shipman was not responsible for the death.

Dame Janet said in the report: ‘‘No-one reading this report can fail to be shocked by the enormity of the crimes committed by Shipman and to feel, as I do, the deepest sympathy for his victims and their families.

‘‘His activities have brought tragedy upon them and also upon the communities in which he practised and which gave him their trust.’’

She said the inquiry would now go on to direct its efforts to devising improved systems ‘‘so as to ensure such a terrible betrayal of trust by a family doctor can never happen again’’.

Shipman is to be sent a copy of the report in Frankland jail, County Durham, where he is serving life for the murders of 15 patients.

Dame Janet’s analysis of Shipman’s killings revealed that in his single-handed practice he claimed one victim in 1992, 16 in 1993 and 11 in 1994.

In 1995 and 1996 he killed 30 patients in each year, and 37 in 1997. During the first three months of 1998 he killed 15 patients, after which there was an interval of seven weeks, before he went on to murder three more patients before his arrest in September.

Dame Janet’s list of 215 patients who were unlawfully killed include the 15 women he was convicted of murdering at Preston Crown Court in January, 2000, and a further 27 on whom inquests were later held.