Shipman's victims 'died in minutes'

The public inquiry is sitting in Manchester Town Hall

The victims of serial killer Harold Shipman would have died within minutes of being given lethal injections of diamorphine, the public inquiry into the deaths of 459 of the GP's patients has heard.

Shipman is serving 15 life sentences in Frankland prison, County Durham, for killing 15 patients using injections of the drug, better known as heroin.

Harold Shipman was convicted of killing 15 patients

Professor of pain relief at Oxford University Dr Henry McQuay said patients injected with 30mg or more of diamorphine would die within 10 minutes.

The diamorphine would stop the patient's breathing within minutes, he said.

"If you do not breathe for three minutes then your brain will be starved of oxygen and you will die," Professor McQuay added.

In a report prepared for the inquiry, which is expected to last two years, he said that victims would become pallid and then die.

On the second day of the hearing at Manchester Town Hall, Professor McQuay said the effects of the drug would be exaggerated in elderly people.

Shipman killed using diamorphine injections

The standard injection for an adult in acute pain would be 5mg every four hours - but to stop the breathing would require 30mg in five minutes, he told the inquiry.

Professor McQuay added that he had only ever used half that amount on a patient.

He said GPs were rarely required to inject diamorphine.

"The amount of injections that a GP gives has gone down partly because of the use of paramedics," he told the hearing.

The inquiry was adjourned until Friday morning when Dr John Grenville will give evidence.