Shipman patient 'unlawfully killed'

GP Harold Shipman was convicted of 15 murders

Another elderly former patient of serial killer GP Harold Shipman was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.

Hilda Hibbert, 81, had made an appointment with Shipman after complaining that she felt queasy, but was found dead shortly after the doctor visited in January 1996.

South Manchester coroner John Pollard said at the end of the hearing in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, that any other explanation "beggared belief".

He said: "Clearly this - that Mrs Hibbert was an elderly lady who had some medical problems.

"The fact of the matter is that Mrs Hibbert did have medical problems but they were not life-threatening."

He said that the evidence was clear despite the absence of post-mortem results.

She was playing hide and seek with my daughter and one of her friends and everything seemed to be fine

Jane Ashton-Hibbert

Mrs Hibbert had been feeling much better by the time Harold Shipman was due to call, said Mrs Jane Ashton-Hibbert, her granddaughter.

She had even been playing with her great-granddaughter, the hearing was told.

"She was playing hide and seek with my daughter and one of her friends and everything seemed to be fine.

"But I said that we had called the doctor so he would still call."

But when the family returned just an hour later - after Shipman had been - she was sitting dead in an armchair.

Shipman used diamorphine overdoses to kill his victims

After she was discovered Shipman said that there was no need for a post-mortem examination as he had been the last one to see her, the inquest was told.

After the verdict was recorded, Daughter Janice Hibbert said: "We are so relieved it is over and that we can let Hilda rest in peace now.

"We were hoping for this outcome but we didn't expect it."

Detective Constable Lee Thompson had told the hearing that the circumstances of Mrs Hibbert's death were "extremely suspicious" and followed the pattern of the other deaths which were investigated.

'B' list

Mr Pollard is holding inquests into a "B" list of potential victims of Harold Shipman.

These are cases in which the police suspected foul play, but did not have enough evidence to proceed to court.

The inquest on Mrs Hibbert was the first of a series of hearings on 24 of of 54-year-old Shipman's suspected victims.

The doctor has already been convicted of murdering 15 elderly woman patients and sentenced to life imprisonment.

A report commissioned by Department of Health last week suggested that Shipman could have been responsible for the deaths of 236 or more of his patients over a 24-year period.