Manchester - A British doctor was ordered yesterday to face trial accused of murdering an elderly woman patient, hours after police investigating him exhumed a seventh body.
Dr Harold Shipman (52), has been charged with murdering four women patients and with using forgery and attempted deception to try to inherit the £300,000 estate of one of his alleged victims.
A court near Manchester sent him for trial for one of the deaths and will decide on December 7th whether he should face trial for the others. The grey-haired, bearded doctor appeared in court and replied "I do" when asked whether he understood the charges.
Police began investigating Dr Shipman when the daughter of one of his alleged victims, Ms Kathleen Grundy, contacted them after discovering her mother's will had apparently been changed two weeks before her death to make him the sole beneficiary. She and the other alleged victims were patients at the practice Dr Shipman ran for 20 years. Most of them were elderly. All four of the murders with which he is charged allegedly took place between December last year and June this year.