Shipman ‘probably’ killed 250
The final report into the serial killings of GP Harold Shipman has found he “probably” killed 10-15 patients in his first years as a doctor in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
That brings the likely total of deaths caused by Shipman to 250.
Dame Janet Smith, announcing the final report of her inquiry, said she had been hampered in her investigation into Shipman’s work in Pontefract in 1971-72 by the “sparse” documentation that had survived from that period.
However, she had been able to establish that Shipman had certified 133 death certificates while working in a hospital in Pontefract.
She had not had enough information to reach any conclusion in 45 of those cases, while in 68 cases, she felt assured the deaths were natural.
That left 24 cases in which, she said, “some concerns do arise”. Only in three cases was she sure Shipman had killed his patients, by administering morphine or unregulated drugs, but it was “highly likely” he had been responsible for some of the other suspicious deaths.
For that reason, Dame Janet believed he had been responsible for 10-15 of the deaths, although she stressed that was an estimate “not a calculation”.
Added to the 236 patients it was believed he had killed later in his career, that made a total of around 250 – of which 218 could definitely be attributed to him.
Dame Janet’s report also found that Shipman’s dependence on the drug pethidine probably began during his time at Pontefract General Infirmary.
Opinions of Shipman at the time varied, she said. Some of his co-workers found him to be a hard-working professional, but others thought him “strange, sinister and odd”, and he had taken pains to ingratiate with nursing staff, something he did later in his career in order to obtain excess amounts of regulated drugs.
Analysis of the deaths that Shipman has certified showed an unusually large number had occurred during the evening.
“This finding could be explained if, during the evening, Shipman had been hastening the deaths of patients who had been very ill and could be expected to die very soon,” she said.
Dame Janet said it appeared Shipman began to kill patients “very shortly” after leaving medical school, possibly within one year but definitely within two years.
She remained unable to draw a conclusion as to his motive for the killings, but there was evidence he was “very interested” in drugs and willing to test them on patients, despite the risks this involved.
It was possible that in his early years he killed by the reckless administration of drugs, rather than with the calculated intention to kill that characterised his later life.
