Harold Shipman targeted elderly women after his mum's death, lawyer claims

03 February 2024 , 11:00

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Harold Shipman was a father of four, a respected GP - and a serial killer (Image: Daily Mirror)

Harold Shipman may have started murdering elderly female patients after the death of his mother, an expert has suggested.

The recent horrors that have rocked the UK's medical profession, including baby killer Lucy Letby and breast cancer butcher Ian Paterson, have reignited interest in the murderous Dr Shipman. This month marks the 20th anniversary of his death - he hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield four years into a whole life sentence, guaranteeing his loyal wife Primrose a pension of several hundred thousand pounds.

The former GP was one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, convicted of the murders of 15 women but with an estimated total bodycount of 250. Some 80 per cent of his victims were female OAPS, which has led some to speculate it was a specific youthful trauma that sparked his desire to kill.

Shipman was very close to his mother as a child, and her death when he was 17 is believed to have been a formative event in his life. He witnessed doctors administering morphine at home to help with the pain of lung cancer, in a chilling parable to how he would later take the lives of his victims.

Sir Richard Henriques KC, who led the prosecution against Shipman at Preston Crown Court in 1999, believes his mother's premature death "may well have had something to do with this".

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Shipman's suicide guaranteed his wife Primrose a hefty pension (Daily Mirror)

"In opening the case to the jury, I stated that Shipman was exercising the ultimate power of controlling life and death, and that he repeated it so often, that he must have found the drama of taking life to his taste," he told Mail Online.

Shipman, a mild-mannered Scrabble player and crime novel fan, had been a respected GP in the small town of Hyde and his elderly female patients were said to "adore" him. But instead of treating them the father of four would inject them with a lethal dose of diamorphine. Most of his victims were found sitting upright in a chair, fully clothed and seemed to have died of natural causes.

He would then alter their medical records to fit the cause of death and, horrifyingly, convince their families to cremate their remains so their bodies could never be exhumed and prove his guilt. He went on to profit from some of his victims' wills.

Shipman killed his victims with a deadly dose of morphine (Getty Images)

Primrose Shipman seen after the death of her husband (Daily Mirror)

But after more than 20 years of carrying out his gruesome crimes, suspicions surrounding Shipman began to surface but nothing could be proven - until he made one fatal mistake. Kathleen Grundy, 81, was found dead at home on June 24, 1998. Shipman had been the last person to see her alive and recorded "old age" as he cause of death on her death certificate.

However her daughter, Angela Woodruff, a lawyer, realised something was very wrong when she was contacted by her solicitor, Brian Burgess, about her mother's will. Kathleen had cut her own children out of her will and left her entire £386,000 fortune to Shipman. Mr Burgess urged Angela to go to the police who launched an investigation and exhumed Kathleen's body. Traces of medical heroin were found in his system, which is sometimes used to control pain in terminal cancer patients.

Kathleen Grundy was Shipman's final victim (Manchester Evening News)

He was sentenced to a whole life order (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Shipman tried to explain this away by claiming Kathleen was an addict and showed detectives notes he had made on her digital medical files. But when officers examined his computer, these had been added after Kathleen's death and Shipman was arrested on September 7, 1998. He had made one final error - the forged will had been typed on a Brother typewriter, which Shipman owned - he had also left a fingerprint on the will.

In court Shipman tried to convince the jury that all his victims had suddenly collapsed and died while he was examining them. But they weren't swayed and he was found guilty of 15 counts of murder and one of forgery, and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Sophie Bateman