Killers_ The Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Time - Cawthorne, Nigel [110]
‘Each of your victims was your patient. You murdered each and every one of your victims by a calculated and cold-blooded perversion of your medical skills, for your own evil and wicked purposes.
‘You took advantage of, and grossly abused their trust. You were, after all, each victim’s doctor. I have little doubt that each of your victims smiled and thanked you as she submitted to your deadly ministrations.’
He handed down a life sentence for each of the murders and a four-year sentence for forgery. Normally a judge writes to the Home Secretary to recommend the length a prisoner sentenced to life should serve. Mr Justice Forbes broke with the tradition and announced his recommendations there and then.
‘In the ordinary way, I would not do this in open court,’ he said. ‘But in your case I am satisfied justice demands that I make my views known at the conclusion of this trial. My recommendation will be that you spend the remainder of your days in prison.’
At the end of the 57-day trial, only 15 murders had been dealt with. There were no immediately plans to try Shipman for any more murders. As he was already serving 15 concurrent life sentences, what was the point?
However, the police were convinced that those 15 were only the tip of the iceberg. The first murder that Shipman had been convicted of happened in 1996, but the police were convinced that Shipman’s killing spree started long before that. An audit conducted by Professor Richard Baker of the University of Leicester estimates that he murdered at least 236 patients over a 24-year period. Professor Baker examined the number and pattern of deaths among Shipman’s patients, and compared them with those of other practitioners’ patients. There was a noticeably higher rate of death among elderly patients. Deaths were often clustered at certain times of the day and they usually occurred when Shipman was present. And his records did not match with the patients’ known symptoms.
Detective Chief Superintendent Bernard Postles, who headed the original investigation, noted the death toll estimated in Baker’s audit was ‘broadly in keeping with the number of deaths investigated by Greater Manchester Police during the course of the investigation’. However, John Pollard once said ‘we might be looking at a thousand’. No one will ever know. Shipman was eventually prosecuted for just 15. Professor Baker’s study made for distressing reading for the friends and relatives of patients who died while in the Shipman’s care and the police started a special helpline for those concerned.
An official inquiry was set up under high court judge Dame Janet Smith. It scrutinised the records of nearly 500 of Shipman’s patients who had died between 1978 and 1998. The inquiry’s report concluded that Shipman had murdered at least 215 of his patients – 171 women and 44 men, between the ages of 41 and 93. However, Janet Smith said, ‘The full toll may be higher’, and cited a real suspicion that Shipman had killed 45 more people, though there was not enough information to be certain. And in another 38 cases, there was too little evidence to form any clear opinion on the cause of death.
Dame Janet found Shipman’s ‘non-violent’ killing almost incredible.
‘The way in which Shipman could kill, face the relatives and walk away unsuspected would be dismissed as fanciful if described in a work of fiction,’ she said.
Even more incredible was that he could murder so many people without arousing suspicion for decades.
Later Dame Janet upped the estimate of how many people Shipman killed by 15 – bringing his total murder toll to an estimated 230 – after investigating his activities during the three years he was a junior house doctor at the Pontefract General Infirmary in the 1970s. She said that Shipman had certainly unlawfully killed three men there and that his death toll at the hospital was ‘between ten and fifteen patients’. Dame Janet had decided