Shipman may have killed 300 patients

A British government report published today says the former family doctor, Harold Shipman, may have killed up to three-hundred of his patients during his twenty-four-year career.

Last year, Shipman was convicted of killing fifteen middle-aged or elderly female patients with lethal injections.

But police always suspected the doctor from Manchester, who'd been a drug addict and forged prescriptions, had killed many more.

The new report by Professor Richard Baker from Leicester University says that far more elderly women and men had died than could be considered normal -- as many as three hundred and forty-five deaths needed explanation.

Shipman, who's already serving fifteen consecutive life sentences, has refused to co-operate with further police inquries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service