'Doctor Death' inquiry opens in UK

Shipman was convicted in January last year of 15 murders

MANCHESTER, England -- A public inquiry has opened in Britain to look into the deaths of 466 hospital patients linked to mass murderer Doctor Harold Shipman.

The once respected family doctor, dubbed "Doctor Death" by the British media, was convicted in January last year of murdering 15 elderly female patients.

Prosecutors say he may have killed hundreds more during his 24 years as a general practitioner in Hyde near the northern city of Manchester.

Inquests have since added another 25 to the list of unlawful killings, and a report has linked him directly to 236 more suspicious deaths.

A comparison with family practices in the area showed that Shipman signed 345 more death certificates than the others. Many died in the afternoon, at home and alone.

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Counsel for the inquiry, Caroline Swift QC, said: "Those facts, horrifying as they may be, do not lead to the inescapable conclusion that Shipman is responsible for all those deaths the inquiry is investigating.

"We have been concerned in obtaining evidence that will ascertain the truth, whatever that truth may be. It is not our function to maximise or minimise Shipman's toll of deaths."

Miss Swift in opening the inquiry at Manchester Town Hall, said the inquiry team would approach their task in a "fair and balanced manner."

She said that phase one of the inquiry would be looking at how many patients Shipman had killed.

She said police, the Home Office and medical authorities all failed to take action to stop Shipman handling drugs despite a conviction for forging prescriptions for massive quantities in his early career.

She said charts had been prepared showing how Shipman had obtained supplies of diamorphine from February 1993 which were not administered to patients for whom it was being prescribed.

In the one month of May 1974 he obtained 1,000mg -- sufficient to kill more than 31 people although in reality the evidence of the criminal trial suggested he was using far greater quantities.

She said in June 1996 Shipman had obtained 12,000mg of the drug -- which would be sufficient to kill 400 people.

The public inquiry under Dame Janet Smith will examine a total of 466 cases -- a number Smith said last month could rise still further as the hearings proceeded.

This figure would put him top of the world serial killer league, well ahead of Colombian Pedro Alonso Lopez, nicknamed the "Monster of the Andes" and suspected of killing 300 people.

The grey-haired, bespectacled doctor is serving 15 concurrent life terms, and the judge who sentenced him told him he would never be released from prison.

His wife Primrose was at every day of his trial and has visited him regularly in jail. She has never spoken in public about the case.