GP faces 15 charges of murder

Dr Harold Shipman: on trial for murder

A GP was in the dock at Preston Crown Court in Lancashire last month, facing charges of murdering 15 middle aged and elderly women patients. The trial of Harold Shipman, aged 53, is expected to start next week after legal argument.

The women, mostly widows and all aged between 49 and 81, were patients of Dr Shipman at his singlehanded practice in Hyde, near Manchester. They all died between March 1995 and June 1998.

Dr Shipman is also accused of forging the will of 81 year old Kathleen Grundy, one of the alleged victims, a wealthy former mayoress. Mrs Grundy's daughter contacted the police because her mother's will left her nothing.

Dr Shipman is charged with having "made a false instrument, namely a document purporting to be the will of Kathleen Grundy," intending that it should be accepted as genuine "to the prejudice of the beneficiary under the true will."

In one of the biggest murder inquiries in Europe, police investigated the deaths of more than 100 of Dr Shipman's former patients, exhuming a number of bodies. He was arrested 13 months ago and has been held on remand at Strangeways prison, Manchester. He denies all the charges.

Dr Shipman, who has legal aid, is being defended by Nicola Davies QC, who represented Janardan Dhasmana, one of two surgeons found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council after an inquiry into children's heart surgery in Bristol. She has acted for a number of doctors who have faced GMC charges or been under the spotlight in inquiries ranging from the 1987 Cleveland child sex abuse inquiry to the current BSE inquiry.

Dr Shipman is accused of killing Mrs Grundy, Joan Melia, aged 73, Winifred Mellor, 73, Bianka Pomfret, 49, Ivy Lomas, 63, Marie Quinn, 67, Irene Turner, 67, Jean Lilley, 59, Muriel Grimshaw, 76, Norah Nuttall, 65, Laura Wagstaff, 61, Maureen Ward, 57, Pamela Hillier, 68, Marie West, 81, and Lizzie Adams, 77.

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent, BMJ


studentBMJ 1999;07:394-436 November ISSN 0966-6494