Shipman detective suspended

A British detective whose investigation into serial killer Harold Shipman failed to unearth evidence of murder has been suspended, it emerged today.

Detective Inspector David Smith was criticised by the Shipman Inquiry for the way he carried out his failed inquiry five months before the former GP was finally caught.

In June, Mr Smith was accused of deliberately withholding crucial evidence following the collapse of a £10m (€14m) drugs trial.

Last month Britain's Police Complaints Authority said it was to supervise two internal inquiries into his roles in both investigations.

Today a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed Mr Smith had been suspended last Friday in relation to both inquiries.

She said last month a “properly directed” investigation carried out at the time would “probably” have saved the lives of Shipman’s final three victims.

His superior, Chief Superintendent David Sykes, was also criticised for being too inexperienced to supervise Mr Smith’s investigation.

In June, British judge Mr Justice Penry-Davey attacked officers involved in the David Barnshaw murder trial.

The jury at Preston Crown Court had been told how small-time drug dealer Mr Barnshaw had been beaten and doused in petrol and set alight after being kidnapped.

But the trial was stopped following a defence application that there had been an abuse of the judicial process by the police failure to disclose information and that a fair trial was impossible.