Home > Harold Shipman

Shipman was detected after he attempted to forge a will for one of his victims, whose exhumed body contained traces of diamorphine (medical-grade heroin, legal for pain control in the UK). He had previously been investigated by police, but they had been unable to find any evidence against him. The handling of the case at that time has been widely criticised.

Shipman was convicted in January 2000 of killing 15 patients with lethal injections of diamorphine. The trial judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended that he should never be released. Shipman was one of the last prisoners to receive a government-imposed tariff when in June 2002 the Home Secretary agreed with the trial judge's guidance and said that Shipman should never be freed from prison.

A report into Shipman's activities submitted in JulyJuly is the seventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. July was renamed for Julius Caesar; previously, it was called Quintilis in Latin, since it was the fifth month in the Roman calendar which started in March. Because of its orig 20022002 is a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). 2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112. 2002 was also designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom concluded that he had killed at least 215 of his patients between 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i and 19981998 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Ocean''. Events January January 1998 A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting, during which time he had practised in TodmordenTodmorden is a town in the county of West Yorkshire, England, southwest of Hebden Bridge, and on the Rochdale Canal. This town is traditionally diputed between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Rumour (and it is just a rumour) has it that the county boundry runs, West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England, corresponding roughly to the core of the West Riding of the traditional county of Yorkshire. It borders on Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is composed (1974-1975) and HydeHyde is the name of several places: Hyde, Gloucestershire, England Hyde, Greater Manchester, England Hyde, Hampshire, England and of a fictional character who figures in: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and of: Hyde (singer) as well as the US, Greater ManchesterGreater Manchester is a metropolitan county in England established in 1974 which covers an area roughly encompassing the conurbation of which the city of Manchester is the centre. It is situated in North West England. It borders onto the ceremonial counti (1977-1998). Dame Janet Smith , the judge who submitted the report, admitted that many more suspicious deaths could not be definitively ascribed to him. In total, 459 people died while under his care. Many of the cases are shrouded in uncertainty because Shipman was often the only person to certify a death. Most of his victims were elderly women in good health.

Although apparently convinced of his own superior abilities, Shipman had a troubled professional history which included disciplinary action for the abuse of prescription drugs.

He was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, at 6:20 a.m. on January 13, 2004, on the eve of his 58th birthday, and was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. A Prison Service statement indicated that Shipman had killed himself by using bed sheets to hang himself from the bars of his cell. The Sun newspaper celebrated Shipman's suicide with the front page headline Ship Ship Hooray and the article contained a graphic drawing explaining how Shipman had killed himself. Beneath the image was a memo to Roy Whiting (a convicted child killer also serving a life sentence at Wakefield Prison) which encouraged the killer to follow Shipman's example.

Shipman consistently denied his guilt and never made any statements about his actions. His mother died of cancer while Shipman was still young and some commentators have postulated that his murder of older women was somehow related to this painful experience.

His motive for suicide also remains a mystery, although he had reportedly told his probation officer he was considering suicide so his widow could receive a National Health Service pension and lump sum, even though he had been stripped of his own pension. Another serial killer, Peter Moore is helping the police in the circumstances around Shipman's suicide.[1]

While he is most commonly known as Harold Shipman, he himself preferred his second name and usually called himself Fred Shipman.