Shell-shocked families call for confession

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Relatives of the 15 victims who Harold Shipman was convicted of murdering say they are not surprised at new figures suggesting he may be responsible for 297 deaths.

And the families of some of those now believed to have been murdered by the serial killer urged him to make a full confession to end their uncertainty.

Mike Woodruff's mother-in-law, Irene Turner, was one of the 15 people originally identified as Shipman's victims.

ALSO UK doctor may have killed 297

He said he thought the new figure would cause panic among people at Hyde, in Greater Manchester, where Shipman worked, but added that he had always suspected the former GP had killed more of his patients.

Ms Turner was 67 when Shipman murdered her with a injection of morphine in 1996.

Mr Woodruff, 60, said: "The initial reaction will be panic and people will be astounded. But the people in the know will not be surprised.

"People will be amazed at these figures without any doubt, but I don't know what good they will do apart from to cause panic among people.

"It makes me wonder why, if these figures were to do with the Department of Health, this government has been so against a public inquiry."

Mr Woodruff added: "After the verdicts the coroner said he could have killed up to 1,500, nothing would surprise me."

Hyde councillor Joe Kitchen said he believed his mother Alice was another of Shipman's victims.

"My family are convinced Harold Shipman killed my mother in June 1994," he said.

"Shipman alleged that my mum phoned him in June '94 saying that she felt unwell in the afternoon.

"He then went out and visited her and told us she had obviously had a stroke -- she was dragging her feet and slurring her words and he advised that she should go to hospital.

"Shipman then said my mum refused so he left a note on the mantelpiece advising the family when they got in at tea-time.

"By the time my brother got home at six o'clock, he found my mother dead on the settee."

The latest disclosure had helped his family, he said, but would raise questions in the minds of many people whose relatives died in suspicious circumstances.

He added: "Our family, along with two others, have already been through an inquest when the coroner clearly said my mother had been unlawfully killed.

"A lot of families are not in that position and it is going to be extremely difficult for them. Obviously we are not really going to know until Shipman admits to committing these crimes."

Mr Kitchen said he looked forward to the public inquiry, led by High Court judge Dame Janet Smith, which would begin around Easter. Jane Ashton Hibbert, whose grandmother Hilda Hibbert died in January 1996, is also thought to have been one of Shipman's victims.

"It's just a very difficult time for a lot of the families," she said.

"A lot of the families are still raw, and it just keeps coming back into the public arena all the time.

"I have been running a support group for almost the past year and we still have got as many members as we had when we first started out. It's devastating for a lot of the families.

"If he admitted his guilt it would make it a lot better for a lot of families.

"Some of the families are in 'no-man's land,' they have got no way to turn, they don't know, they are never going to know, and that's the difficult part of this case."

Helen Blackwell's mother, Bertha Moss, was one of the additional 23 people suspected to have been Shipman's victims.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided against putting him on trial for those murders on the grounds that it would not be in the public interest.

Mrs Blackwell, 47, said the new figure came as no surprise, adding: "We always thought he had killed more."

The latest disclosure would be bound to open old wounds for some people and raise new questions for others.

"I think everyone is going to start looking again at how their loved ones died -- I know personally of people who suspected but didn't come forward and this will open new wounds for them," she said.

UK doctor may have killed 297
January 5, 2001

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