TRANSCRIPT - PANORAMA SPECIAL "THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD" JANUARY 31 2000 21.30 ALAN URRY In the early hours of the morning police exhume a body from its resting place in a cemetery at Hyde near Manchester. It was one of many. Most of the bodies were of elderly women. Their death certificates said they died of natural causes. Their death certificates had all been signed by the same doctor. But that doctor had murdered every one of them. JIM KING You never question a doctor do you? You know, we're in the 20th Century here. These things don't happen. Jack the Ripper has gone. Everybody like that doesn't exist anymore. This is a local doctor, this is a village doctor more or less. PETER WAGSTAFF I think if anybody wanted anybody to be with a parent when they died, it would be a family doctor, a family doctor that you trust and believed in. ADRIAN POMFRET They sat there thinking that this marvellous man that they trust is going to ease the pain that they'd got, and.. well, he murders them - lambs to the slaughter. ALAN URRY Today Dr Harold Frederick Shipman was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients by injecting them with fatal doses of morphine. But even at his trial the jury were unaware of the true scale of the killings. The evidence is that Shipman murdered many, many more of his patients. Tonight Panorama investigates how he did it, why he did it, and how he got away with it for so long. Today, when the jury at Harold Shipman's trial delivered its verdict, the town of Hyde finally had its worst fears confirmed. Their local doctor, much loved and highly respected, had been systematically murdering his patients. Kathleen Wagstaff had lived alone since her husband died some years earlier. She enjoyed nothing more than the company of her family and her grandchildren. Dr Shipman had looked after three generations of the Wagstaffs and they thought the world of him. PETER WAGSTAFF He was the doctor to myself, my wife, my children and both our mothers. He was a doctor that I had a lot of respect for, a gentleman. He seemed to do just more than the normal doctor. Nothing ever seemed too much trouble for him really. ANGELA WAGSTAFF We often said we wish he'd been not as old as we were because we'd have loved him to be our GP when we were old to look after us. ALAN URRY Kathleen Wagstaff died at her home in December 1997 while she was being visited by Dr Shipman. He told her family what had happened when he arrived at her house in Rock Gardens. PETER WAGSTAFF He explained that he'd been called to my mother's house by her. He'd been in the area and he arrived very soon because he was but two minutes away. He explained that she was very grey and sweating. He helped her up the stairs, took her pulse, realised that she was in a bad state so then he phoned the ambulance. He went downstairs for his bag and when he returned my mother had died, so he then said he'd cancelled the ambulance. We believed and were thankful for the fact that my mother had had an easy death and she'd not suffered any trauma, she'd not suffered any pain, and I think if anybody wanted anybody to be with a parent when they died, at that point it would a family doctor, a family doctor that you trust and believed in. ALAN URRY Such was the families gratitude to Dr Shipman that they asked friends and relatives not to send flowers to Kathleen's funeral. They thought the money could be spent more appropriately. LEN FALLOWS TREASURER, DR SHIPALAN URRY'S PATIENTS' FUND In December '97 the Wagstaff family sent a letter to Dr Shipman with a donation for £270. I'll read it to you. "Dear Dr Shipman, just a few lines to thank you for all your care and attention to my mother as your patient, and it was comforting to know you were with her during her last moments. We greatly appreciate how you look after us as a family and we couldn't ask for a finer, more caring doctor." I find that very poignant now. ALAN URRY The Wagstaffs' faith in their doctor was not shaken even when, several months later, Shipman came under investigation by the police. They were looking into the will of another of his patients who'd died, a former Lady Mayoress of Hyde, Kathleen Grundy. Shipman was the beneficiary of the will. He stood to gain £380,000. There were suspicions he'd forged it, but many of his patients didn't believe a word of it. LEN FALLOWS When this first broke about the will, it was like going into the surgery on Christmas day where people festooned the walls in Christmas cards. There were hundreds.. literally hundreds of cards from people wishing him well and hoping that the matter would soon be sorted out and they didn't believe it. ALAN URRY Among those patients who rallied behind their doctor were Peter and Angela Wagstaff. ANGELA WAGSTAFF As soon as the news broke we sent a letter of support saying that he had our 100% support. We didn't believe anything and it was just beyond the realms of belief to us that this trusted, well respected GP couldn't do anything like that. ALAN URRY But the police soon established that Kathleen Grundy's will had been faked, and that Mrs Grundy had been murdered. So they began exhuming the bodies of other patients of Shipman's, patients who had died suddenly and unexpectedly. Now, even the Wagstaffs were beginning to have their doubts. So they decided to check out for themselves what the doctor had told them about how Peter's mother had died. PETER WAGSTAFF I suddenly thought that perhaps I could check the phone bill, my mother's phone bill, from her home. She would have phoned for Dr Shipman, and also Dr Shipman would have phoned the ambulance. So I contacted British Telecom and asked them for a detailed phone bill for my mother's house of that day. ANGELA WAGSTAFF I opened the letter and after a quick look I realised that there were no telephone calls made on that day before I'd been told that Peter's mum had died, and that in actual fact there had been no call to the surgery. And I phoned Peter, because he'd already left for work, and I said "He's done it". ALAN URRY Shipman had lied about being called to Kathleen Wagstaff's house. He'd lied about phoning an ambulance, and he'd lied about cancelling the ambulance. At his trial Shipman was shown to have told similar lies to relatives of other victims he'd murdered. Kathleen, like five others whose murders he was charged with, had been cremated, so tests for morphine were impossible. But the jury at Shipman's trial had no doubts. Her murder was one of the 15 of which Harold Shipman was convicted today. Tomorrow the people of Hyde will wake up to the realisation that Shipman's crimes went far, far beyond those which were put before the court. They will learn that many more of the town's elderly population were killed than the jury at Shipman's trial could have imagined. FATHER DENIS MAHER As the case went on, it was amazing the number of people who are following the trial very closely and coming to their own conclusions about members of their families. ALAN URRY The local health authority has been investigating how many of Shipman's elderly female patients died each year, and comparing this with other local doctor's death rates. The results are chilling. JAN FORSTER WEST PENNINE REGIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITY Between the years of 1993 and '98 that we've looked at, in total have been, in statistical terms, in excess of 91 deaths. They do give us a very good broad indicator of the number of potential murders. ALAN URRY Another clue comes from the number of death certificates Shipman was signing. For most doctors the numbers remain pretty constant and fairly low. DR CHARLES DOUGLAS FORMER COLLEAGUE OF DR SHIPALAN URRY I would think you're talking terms of perhaps somewhere between 6 and 10 certificates per year I think I would use. Perhaps 10 in a year in which there are a lot of deaths and 6 in a year when there aren't so many deaths in a community that I would certify, that's what I would guesstimate. ALAN URRY In 1992 when Shipman set up in practice on his own, his death rates were very similar. He signed just 7 certificates. But from this point on the number began to rise. In 1993 it was 28. In 1994 it dropped to 16. In 1995 it was up to 38. In 1996 42. In 1997 47. And, in just the first half of 1998 before he came under police investigation, it was 24. Dr Shipman signed 47 in 1997. DR DOUGLAS Right. That's.. I mean.. as I said, that would be perhaps five times more than I would expect in a year when I would expect a lot of deaths in the community. That seems an extraordinarily high number to me. ALAN URRY Although the police refused to comment publicly on how many murders there might have been, it's clear that their investigations have gone well beyond the 15 cases for which Shipman was convicted. JOHN POLLARD CORONER Based on the evidence which I have seen which has been made available to me by the police, I think it is reasonable to assume that Dr Shipman has killed between 120 and 150 people. ALAN URRY The exact moment when Harold Shipman became a murderer may never be known, but police have investigated cases going back to 1984. And there were signs from the earliest days of his career in the 1970s that there was something not quite right about the man who became the biggest serial killer in British criminal history. Harold Frederick Shipman - Fred to his friends and colleagues - began his career as a GP some way from Hyde, across the Pennines in West Yorkshire. He joined a surgery in Todmorden in 1974 and the other partners were delighted with their new colleague. Shipman had grown up in Nottingham. He fought his way out of an underprivileged background to get to grammar school. He was a keen rugby player. He went to medical school in Leeds. He'd worked and trained in hospitals for four years. He'd done well. But in Todmorden it soon became apparent that all was not well. DR MICHAEL GRIEVE He had a continuing problem in a way in that he passed out, lost consciousness on more than one occasion. On one occasion I saw him, I think other people saw him on other occasions, and he certainly went into hospital after these blackouts. ALAN URRY At the time there was no obvious cause, but one soon emerged. Large amounts of pethidine, an opiate based pain killer like morphine, were going missing. At a dramatic practice meeting Dr John Daker confronted Shipman. DR GRIEVE We were sat round with Fred sitting on one side and up comes John on the opposite and says "Now young Fred, can you explain this?" And he puts before him evidence that he has been gleaning, showing that young Fred had been prescribing pethidine to patients and they'd never received the pethidine, and in fact the pethidine had found its way into Fred's very own veins. ALAN URRY Shipman was forced to resign and he treated for pethidine addiction. He was also prosecuted and convicted of drugs offences and prescription fraud. He was fined £600. But the conviction didn't stop him working as a GP. Less than two years later he moved across the Pennines to Hyde, near Manchester. He joined the Donneybrook Health Centre and he freely owned up to his past. DR JEFFERY MOYSEY DONNEYBROOK MEDICAL CENTRE His approach was that I have had this problem, I have had this conviction for abuse of pethidine. I have undergone treatment, I am now clean. All I can ask you to do is to trust me on that issue and to watch me. ALAN URRY The Donneybrook doctors decided to trust him, and he appeared to repay their trust by again establishing a reputation as an exceptionally hardworking local doctor. There was no warning that Shipman would become a serial killer, carrying out a murderous campaign against the elderly women of Hyde. Molly Dudley was 69 years old and a widow. She was never in the best of health, but she was still active and enjoyed the company of her family who lived close by. In 1990, a few days after Christmas, she phoned her daughter-in-law. JOYCE DUDLEY I got a phone call off mum to say that she wasn't very well, and that she'd rung for the doctor. But she said "Well I'll be alright, I'll just wait for the doctor coming". ALAN URRY Dr shipman arrived very shortly afterwards. A little later Joyce Dudley got another call. This time it was Dr Shipman. JOYCE DUDLEY He was phoning from mum's and he said "I'm afraid your mother-in-law has only got about half an hour left to live". And as soon as he said that I asked him to speak to Jeff because I just couldn't believe it. JEFFREY DUDLEY He also said "Don't rush" which appeared a bit strange to me as well. I promptly went down there and Joyce was going to follow me down, and by the time I got there she was already dead. He just said that, when he'd arrived, that she was cold, grey and sweaty and looked as though she was having a heart attack. JOYCE DUDLEY And this is when he said to me and Jeff that he gave her a shot of morphine for the pain. ALAN URRY Evidence from the Dudley family proved crucial at Shipman's trial. Even though Molly's death was not one that he was charged with. He claimed he couldn't have killed any of his victims because he never carried morphine. But the Dudley statements that he'd admitted giving Molly morphine helped prove him a liar and convict him. Eighteen months after Molly's death Shipman set up in practice on his own, away from the scrutiny of other doctors. Mass murder would soon follow. Jim King was Molly Dudley's nephew. Molly was one of three family members murdered by Dr Shipman, and he was able to get away with it because of the barrier of trust which surrounds a doctor. Jim met his wife Debbie in America. They came back to his home town of Hyde to settle. When they married, Debbie was given by Jim's dad, Jim King senior. DEBBIE KING He escorted me down the aisle when we were married in May of '96, and he felt proud as a peacock walking down the aisle. He was a quiet man and he was also a gentleman. JIM KING He was a very healthy person, and in fact the week before we'd walked all the way along the canal together. He'd asked me to go walk with him and we walked all the way along the canal, a matter of about 5 miles. Boy, he gave me a run for my money. ALAN URRY But just before Christmas 1997 Jim's dad became unwell. JIM KING He felt a little bit dizzy and he had a cough, so he sent for the doctor to come up and see him. It was on Christmas Eve actually. My sister called up my father and asked my father what time the doctor was coming. So he said he expected him to be there within the hour, and then half way through the conversation with my sister he said "Oh the doctor's here right now". So my sister said "Oh call me back after he's been. Let me know what the outcome is." So he said he would do that. ALAN URRY But just like his sister-in-law, Molly Dudley, Jim King senior would never make that phone call, and, just like Molly, this was the last time he would speak to any of his family, because just like Molly, Jim King senior did not survive that Christmas visit from Harold Shipman. JIM KING My son called me and said that his Aunty Margaret, my sister, was on the phone and she sounded really upset. So I came down, picked the phone up and my sister said she'd just found my father dead sat in a chair. ALAN URRY It bore all the hallmarks of a Shipman murder. A healthy person dying suddenly, found in a chair as if asleep, shortly after a visit from Shipman. Jim King senior was one of the very few men to have been killed by Dr Shipman. Still no-one was thinking the unthinkable, even when, two months later, Irene Berry, another of Jim's aunts also died, again following a visit from Shipman. JEAN DARLINGTON DAUGHTER OF IRENE BERRY I was actually in bed having worked a night shift. Just after lunch time my husband came up and woke me up, told me that Dr Shipman had been on the phone. He said that Dr Shipman had said that he was at Mrs Berry's house and she wasn't very well. So my husband said "Well how bad is she?" to which Dr Shipman replied "Well how bad do you think it can get?" And my husband said "Well has she passed away?" and Dr Shipman said "Yes". ALAN URRY Irene Berry had been a lively, outgoing woman. She regularly travelled to London to visit relatives, and she was known as someone with a great sense of humour. JEAN DARLINGTON I think she put people at ease. She would go to the Community Centre at the sheltered housing where she was, and she would always seem to be the life and soul of the place. ALAN URRY Irene Berry died at home on a Sunday. Her death came out of the blue, a complete shock to her family and friends. She'd recently been unwell but only with shingles. She'd been in a lot of pain so she called for Dr Shipman. He came out to visit her. It was from Irene's house that Shipman phoned Jean Darlington and her husband. When they went to the house Shipman was still there. JEAN DARLINGTON He said, she's very comfortable. The fire's on, a half cup of tea there. You know, I'll come in with you. And she was just sat on the chair where she would normally sit, with the fire on, her book, and half a cup of tea. She just looked as though she was asleep. ALAN URRY But Jean was an accident and emergency nurse, and she was far from happy with his account of what had happened. JEAN DARLINGTON He said that she'd called him out because she had chest pain. Immediately I wondered.. you know, well why didn't he do something about it. He said he went away. He gave her a spray, a GTN spray and said we'll see how that goes, he said "But it didn't work so I decided to go and come back and see how she was later and bring the ECG machine with me" which seemed odd to me right at the time. And he said when he came back with the ECG machine she was dead. If he didn't think it was a cardiac problem, why did he go for an ECG machine, and if he did, why didn't he get an ambulance. ALAN URRY But despite her reservations about the way he'd treated her mother, Jean Darlington never suspected the worst. JEAN DARLINGTON I felt concerned about my mother but in such grief I thought how could he have done this, a GP with so many years experience. But I certainly didn't think he would have done it on purpose. You don't think murder, you just think negligence. JIM KING Well this is the strangest thing. Here's my father dies one hour after Dr Shipman comes, and here's my aunt dies under the same circumstances. ALAN URRY Why didn't you ever go to the police then by this time? JIM KING Because you trust the doctor. ALAN URRY Irene Berry was cremated, so any evidence of morphine was destroyed. And Shipman assured the family there was no need for a postmortem. He put on the death certificate she'd died of a heart attack, but she'd never had heart problems. So, to cover his tracks, Shipman falsified her medical records to show a history of heart trouble where none had existed. Police were to find he'd done this in many other cases. DET CHIEF INSP MIKE WILLIAMS GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE He was using them to convince a family that they had a previous heart condition or high blood pressure or whatever which enabled him to give a cause of death and sign a death certificate, in many cases to ensure that no postmortem took place and that they body could be cremated. ALAN URRY But in the end these forgeries would help to trap him. The fact that he'd back dated them was itself recorded in the computer's memory. When he was interviewed by police, Shipman was calm and unemotional until confronted with evidence that he faked medical records. [Police Interview] Police Officer: I'll just remind you of the date of this lady's death - 11th May '98. After 3 o'clock that afternoon, you have endorsed the computer with the date of 1st October '97 which is 10 months prior, "chest pains". Dr Shipman: I have no recollection of me putting that on the machine. Officer: It's your passcode, it's your name. Dr Shipman: It doesn't alter the fact I can't remember doing it. Officer: You attended the house at 3 o'clock. That's when you murdered this lady. You went back to the surgery and immediately started altering this lady's medical records. You tell me why you needed to do that. Dr Shipman: There's no answer. ALAN URRY Despite his loss, Jim King knows he's been lucky because Shipman failed to do to Jim what he'd done to others in his family. Remarkably Jim King survived an attempt by Shipman to kill him. In 1996, recently married, Jim became ill. He was diagnosed as having cancer. The diagnosis later turned out to be wrong. But Jim was treated by Shipman with huge doses of morphine. JIM KING And he kept saying to us well you can take as much morphine as you wish because of course it didn't really matter, I was dying anyway. So as long as it eased the pain then you just keep taking it and he prescribed me vast amounts of morphine. ALAN URRY Then, just before Christmas he took a turn for the worst. DEBBIE KING Jim was bad. He was in a bad way. I rang Dr Shipman to have him come around and check him over. JIM KING He tested my chest and said that I had got a bad dose of pneumonia and I'd got liquid on the lungs. ALAN URRY What was he proposing to do about that? JIM KING Well I don't know really because he just said "I need to give him an injection" and at that time my wife.. I remember looking at her and she looked a bit concerned about this. DEBBIE KING He asked me if I wanted him to give him an injection and I said no. I said can we write out a prescription for him. He kept being a little bit persistent about it and I kept telling him no, no, I don't want it. He was a bit arrogant about it, a kind of snotty attitude towards me. ALAN URRY You think you saved your husband's life? DEBBIE KING Yes. I do now. I know that now for sure. JIM KING I really strongly believe, and this is my belief, and my wife's, if he had given me that injection that day, I don't believe I would be here today, I really don't. ALAN URRY Patients like Jim were specially useful to Shipman. To kill he needed illicit supplies of morphine. He got much of it from terminally ill patients. DET SUPT BERNARD POSTLES GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE What he tended to do is over prescribe to individuals who legitimately required diamorphine, certainly in the days just prior to them dying. What he would do then is go along to the home, offer to dispose of any excess that was left at the house, and he would take that away. ALAN URRY And if Jim King had died from cancer, Shipman might well have obtained supplies of morphine in his name, morphine which he would add to his stockpile to use on other victims. But Jim King didn't have cancer. He cheated death twice. His family weren't so lucky. Shipman killed his aunt, Molly Dudley in 1990. Then he murdered another aunt, Irene Berry, and his father, Jim King senior. They are amongst the many victims whose deaths Shipman has not been charged with. But further charges are being considered by the prosecuting authorities. By the end of 1997 the rate at which Shipman's elderly patients were dying was not going unnoticed. But tragically, an opportunity to stop his murderous campaign was missed. The first serious concerns arose at the local undertakers. They'd noticed worrying patterns amongst Dr Shipman's dead patients. ALAN MASSEY Anybody can die in a chair. You can drop down dead in the street. But there's no set pattern, and Dr Shipman's always seem to be the same, or very similar. Could be sat in a chair, could be laid on the settee, but I would say 90% was always fully clothed. There was never anything in the house that I saw that indicated the person had been ill. It just seems the person where they were had died. There was something that didn't quite fit. ALAN URRY What did you do then? ALAN MASSEY Well I actually had a word with Dr Shipman at his surgery and asked him if there was any cause for concern and he just said no there isn't. He showed me his certificate book that he issues death certificates in, the cause of death in, and his remarks were nothing to worry about, you've nothing to worry about and anybody who wants to inspect this book can do. ALAN URRY These were very serious matters that you were raising with him, albeit in a round about sort of way. What was his attitude when you raised it? ALAN MASSEY Friendly which was.. I was surprised a bit at that. He seemed very friendly. I would have thought he might have hit the roof actually. I wasn't making an accusation. DAVID BRAMBROFFE We were just concerned about the actual number of deaths and that's what we were pointing out really. ALAN URRY Did he seem surprised that you'd come to see him about that? ALAN MASSEY Not at all, no. ALAN URRY Did that surprise you? ALAN MASSEY Yes. ALAN URRY Dr Shipman's surgery was in Market Street in the Centre of Hyde. Across the road from his practice is the Brooke Surgery whose doctors were often asked to countersign cremation forms when Dr Shipman's patients had died. Cremation forms always have to be signed by a GP from another practice. They have to discuss the case with the patient's GP and look at the body. In February 1998 one of the Brook GPs went to the funeral directors to examine a body. She was taken aside by Debbie Brambroffe, one of the undertakers, for a discreet word. DR SUSAN BOOTH She was concerned about the number of deaths of Dr Shipman's patients that they'd attended recently. She was also concerned about the way in which the patients were found. They were mostly female, living on their own, found dead sitting in a chair fully dressed, not in their nightclothes lying ill in bed. ALAN URRY At the same time the Brook doctors had noticed a steep rise in the number of cremation forms they were being asked to sign by Shipman. The Brook doctors decided to investigate how many of his patients were dying at home compared to their own. DR RAJ PATEL The Brook Surgery looks after 9,800 patients, and for that number of patients we had 14 deaths in a year. Now Dr Shipman's practice we knew was somewhere approaching 3,500 patients, yet for 3,500 patients he had sent us 41 requests for cremation forms compared with our total death rate of 14 for nearly 10,000 patients. DR SUSAN BOOTH When we discovered that his rate of cremations was three times our total death rate in the year 1997, I think we then began to think the unthinkable. ALAN URRY By March 1998, six months before his arrest, Shipman was close to being found out. The recent steep rise in deaths amongst his elderly patients was attracting attention, and the way they all seemed to die had also been spotted. The Brook GPs decided to contact the local coroner. JOHN POLLARD CORONER I contacted the police straightaway. In fact I went personally to a meeting with the Chief Superintendent, I think I'm right in saying that day, it may have been the following day, we discussed it fully what had been said to me and he immediately detailed the Detective Inspector to carry out the investigation. ALAN URRY The police decided it was too sensitive to talk to relatives of dead patients. Instead they decided to check the medical records of patients who'd died in the previous six months, the very records that Shipman had been faking. DET SUPT BERNARD POSTLES GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE The DI asked the local health authority to draw the medical records for those individuals and to see whether the cause of death that was given by Dr Shipman, accorded with the medical history of the individual patient. They concluded that in actual fact it did. ALAN URRY But did it not occur to anyone that Dr Shipman himself had altered those records to create himself an alibi? DET SUPT POSTLES It obviously does now. Whether it did at that stage I'm not aware. ALAN URRY Why not question the relatives because that's where the evidence would have lain? DET SUPT POSTLES Because before we moved to that stage we needed some confirmation which would give us.. we needed to be on some firm ground before we actually went and made this suggestion to relatives because of the upset that it was going to cause them. ALAN URRY The evidence was there, it just wasn't found. DET SUPT POSTLES Yes. ALAN URRY The undertakers and the doctors at the Brook Surgery were reassured that Dr Shipman was innocent of any wrongdoing. He had more deaths, they were told, because he had more older patients and it had been a bad winter. The coroner was also told there was no evidence of any crime. But that wasn't the end of the matter. JOHN POLLARD My greatest regret is that there was this delay before he was eventually arrested and charged because during that time, undoubtedly, other deaths occurred. ALAN URRY One of those other deaths was of Win Mellor, an outgoing, energetic 73 year old, deeply involved in her local church. She'd been a patient of Shipman's for years. He'd nursed her husband when he died in 1989. KATH ADAMSKI DAUGHTER OF WIN MELLOR Dr Shipman came out and he decided he'd have to send him to hospital and my mum was downstairs, and as he came downstairs I was in the front room, my mum was in the living room, and he turned to my mum, my mum was breaking her heart and he put his arms round my mum and held her, and that was the relationship that she had with Dr Shipman. ALAN URRY Two years ago Win Mellor had a new lease of life. She was going to fulfil a lifetime's ambition. FATHER DENIS MAHER We had organised a trip to the Holy Land and she was the very first person in the parish to put her name down for that trip. KATH ADAMSKI To actually follow in Jesus Christ's footsteps, to go to the various places. That would.. she was living what's written in the Bible. FATHER DENIS MAHER She was like a child looking forward to Christmas. She said - her own phrase - "All my life I've wanted to go to the Holy Land, and now I'm going". ALAN URRY But Win never made it to the Holy Land. In May 1998, six weeks after the police investigation ended, Dr Shipman called at Win's house. When he left, she was dead. Shipman returned to the house later in the afternoon. DET CHIEF INSP MIKE WILLIAMS GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE A neighbour, teatime, gets a knock on the door from Dr Shipman saying he's come to see Winifred Mellor. He can see her sat in a chair and he thinks she's dead. They go into the house and again they find Winifred Miller dead in a chair. ALAN URRY From the house Shipman phoned Win Mellor's daughter. KATH ADAMSKI The phone went and it was Dr Shipman. He said "Did you realise that your mother has been suffering from chest pains?" and I said no. He Said "She called this morning at surgery and I came to see her this afternoon and she refused treatment." So I says well I'll be up, I'll be up as soon as I can. He said "No, no there's no need for that" So I said has she gone to hospital? And he said "There's no point in sending her to hospital". Those were his words. And I just went silent then, and he didn't say anything neither. And then I just realised what he was not saying. And I said Do you mean my mother's dead? He says "I see you understand". He'd made me guess that my mum was dead. ALAN URRY After the unsuccessful police investigation Shipman murdered Kathleen Grundy, Joan Melior and Win Mellor. VINCENT SWEENEY ASST CHIEF CONSTABLE, GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE We've been in close liaison with those families, we've been honest and open with them and they are fully aware of the first inquiry and the conclusions that it came to. We've shared that with them and through our bereaved family liaison officers, and I have to say that they have been incredibly understanding of the position that the police found themselves in, in terms of the nature of the inquiry. KATH ADAMSKI I'm very, very angry. From what I've been told, they didn't really want to I suppose upset anybody because it's such a sensitive issue. But to me, when you're talking about people dying unnecessarily, I think the police should have rigorously investigated it. ALAN URRY Linda Reynolds, the Brook GP who originally went to the coroner is now terminally ill. She believes the police didn't take her concerns seriously. The GP who raised concerns about Dr Shipman's death rates says that when your officer came to see her to give Dr Shipman the all clear she was still unhappy, and she said to him, "Look there's a body at the undertakers. Do you want to investigate the death?" And he declined to do so. ASST CHIEF CONSTABLE SWEENEY I don't know anything about that. What I do know.. look I mean I genuinely don't know anything about that so that's news to me. ALAN URRY It demonstrates, doesn't it, that your officer wasn't taking her concern seriously enough. ASST CHIEF CONSTABLE SWEEENEY I don't accept that that is.. I don't accept that that is the conclusion that you would draw from that. ALAN URRY She's asking him to go and examine a body because she's still worried that Dr Shipman is killing people. ASST CHIEF CONSTABLE SWEENEY I'm sorry, I don't know, I can't comment on the circumstances of that. I don't know about the circumstances of that. I can't comment on that. ALAN URRY This is what she tells us. ASST CHIEF CONSTABLE SWEENEY Oh great. You know, I'm sorry, I can't comment on something that I don't know anything about. ALAN URRY During Shipman's trial at Preston Crown Court there was one key question that the Prosecution couldn't answer. Why did he do it? There was a clear motive in only one case, but it was the case that finally brought him down. Kathleen Grundy was a former lady Mayoress of Hyde. She lived alone in a 300 year old cottage on the outskirts of the town where she died suddenly early one morning. Her estate came to £380,000 and she appeared to have left it all to Dr Shipman. Her family didn't believe it and they went to the police. ANGELA WOODRUFF DAUGHTER OF KATHLEEN GRUNDY It wasn't so much the fact that she had left her estate apparently to Dr Shipman, but it was the will itself when we saw a copy of that we realised it wasn't my mother's signature, it wasn't a document to which she would have put her name. It was badly typed. It just wasn't my mother at all. DET CHIEF INSP MIKE WILLIAMS We did discover that certainly the signatures to the will, the two witnesses their signatures were false, as was Kathleen Grundy's own signature. ANGELA WOODRUFF We thought it would be very difficult to get this concept through to the police and it was unbelievable for us and so we thought it would be difficult to get the police to believe us. But obviously they had no trouble in believing us and it seemed like we were knocking at an open door possibly. ALAN URRY Asked for a second time to investigate Shipman it was now obvious to police that there were serious suspicions about the doctor. At last they began a murder inquiry starting with Kathleen Grundy. DET SUPT POSTLES She was expecting a visit from Dr Shipman that morning, some time after 8 o'clock for him to take a blood sample from her. We know he did visit at around about that time and arrived back in his surgery for the morning surgery. ALAN URRY But Kathleen Grundy was not to survive that visit from Dr Shipman. DET SUPT POSTLES There was only one reason he was going there. He wasn't going to take a blood sample, he was going there to kill her. He's made an appointment to go and kill Kathleen Grundy. ALAN URRY When police exhumed the body of Kathleen Grundy, they found lethal amounts of morphine, prompting the investigation which led to Shipman being charged with 15 murders. But at the investigation moved on, his friends and colleagues still could not believe it, and he continued with his lies and bravado. DR CHARLES DOUGLAS I went along on a Wednesday afternoon, spent about 2 hours talking to him, and it was quite a moving conversation in many respects because he was very distressed. On a couple of occasions he came close to tears, and he actually told me a lot of the story about the will of Kathleen Grundy, and at the end of that 2 hour conversation I was utterly convinced that this was a man who had, for whatever reason, been unjustly and wrongfully accused of trying to gain by actually ending a patient's life, and I was horrified that this could happen to somebody whom I held in high regard. ALAN URRY But what the friend of this utterly convincing man could not know was how he really felt towards those under his care. The day after he had killed Kathleen Wagstaff, Shipman drove across Hyde to visit one of his more demanding patients. She'd phoned his surgery but she wasn't expecting him to visit. Shipman called at her house at lunchtime. He was the last person she spoke to. Four hours later, 49 year old Bianca Pomfret was found dead. ADRIAN POMFRET EX-HUSBAND OF BIANCA POMFRET She'd actually been found sat in a casual position like I am now, with half a cigarette burning in an ashtray, partly filled cup of coffee and the TV was switched on. ALAN URRY But the case of Bianca Pomfret revealed another side of Harold Frederick Shipman. He was stealing trophies from his victims. Adrian Pomfret had given Bianca many presents of jewellery during their marriage. She also had valuable keepsakes from her family in Germany. But when she died, most of it had disappeared. ADRIAN POMFRET The jewellery went missing from Bianca's home on the last day of her life, and Shipman was the last person to see her alive, so that speaks for itself doesn't it. ALAN URRY And other victims were robbed the day they died. When Win Mellor's body was found, both jewellery, and the pension money she'd drawn from the post office that morning, had vanished. KATH ADAMSKI Her purse was there, and there was only a couple of pound in it. By looking at her shopping in the kitchen that morning, and by looking at what was left in her purse, there was over £60 missing and she had drawn it that because her book was there and it was stamped on that day. ALAN URRY Also missing was a ring with a distinctive Irish design. It had originally belonged to one of her daughters who had passed it on to Win. KATH ADAMSKI It was found later on when the police were investigating Dr Shipman and had obviously gone into his surgery, searched it, whatever. That ring, along with a pair of earrings, were found on a shelf in his surgery. ALAN URRY The police did seize jewellery from Shipman's house and surgery, but say none was identified to their satisfaction. But if Shipman did steal jewellery it wasn't for financial gain. He didn't sell it, he kept it. Like other serial killers, he was collecting trophies. And there are other insights into his behaviour. During his trial, Shipman's irritation with demanding patients became clear. DET CHIEF INSP MIKE WILLIAMS In evidence he has described his patients as a nuisance, as people who are regular attenders and to the point when I'm getting fed up with them. ALAN URRY Do you think it's possible that Dr Shipman formed the view of Bianca that she was a difficult patient, a troublesome patient? ADRIAN POMFRET Well I know for a fact that he did have that opinion because he stressed that opinion to me on a number of occasions. ALAN URRY From prison Shipman has been writing to his former colleague and friend Charles Douglas. His letters reveal a man still in denial. DR CHARLES DOUGLAS It's the constant refrain of somebody who is innocent of all charges. That is what has come forth in the letters. And that, as the evidence came forward time after time, has been difficult to come to terms with and has made it difficult for me to write back and continue a conversation. ALAN URRY Was there anything in his behaviour at all that suggested abnormal personality? DR CHARLES DOUGLAS There's nothing that I can put a finger on and point to conveniently. That just isn't the case. But I think it isn't just somebody who has had a bad day. I mean this is somebody who has apparently committed some horrendous crimes to a level that is quite staggering. And I think we've got to say that that is just behaviour totally out of the norm, and there is nothing that I have seen in his previous pattern that would explain that at all. DET SUPT BERNARD POSTLES We looked at all the usual motives. It seems fairly clear in Kathleen Grundy but it's the others that we've had to come to an answer with, and I think it's to do with the fact that he's... He just enjoys killing people and being present when they die. JOHN POLLARD My suspicions are very strongly that he, having killed the first person that he killed, developed a taste for it if you like, and he enjoyed seeing the process of people dying and he enjoyed the fact that he held that power over people. That, quite honestly, is the only explanation that I can put forward. ALAN URRY For most of his victims, all the Prosecution could suggest was that Shipman enjoyed exercising the power of life and death. He was a man who enjoyed playing God. PETER WAGSTAFF My mother was still fit and active. She enjoyed life. We've missed her enjoyment of our children and she herself has missed the enjoyment of those children. She wasn't ready to go. It wasn't her time. No mortal can decide when somebody goes. KATH ADAMSKI She was a healthy, active woman with a full life to lead. It's not just mum, a lot of the other ladies had full active lives. The only think I can think of is he's an evil, evil man. He's just evil. He's bad through and through. ______________________________________ You can comment on the issues raised in this programme by visiting our website at www.bbc.co.uk/panorama 15