BRITAIN: Mass murderer Harold Shipman was found hanging in his cell at Wakefield Prison yesterday, taking with him to the grave the secret of precisely how many patients he killed over 23 years while working as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
The once smiling family practitioner who became Britain's most notorious serial killer was found hanging from a ligature made of torn bedclothes early yesterday morning.
Prison staff tried to revive him but he was pronounced dead at 8.10 a.m., prompting the government to order an immediate inquiry by the new prisons ombudsman Mr Stephen Shaw.
West Yorkshire police launched a second inquiry, to investigate any suspicious circumstances surrounding Shipman's death.
But while many relatives of his victims welcomed Shipman's presumed suicide, on the eve of his 58th birthday, others spoke of feeling "cheated" by his death and accused him of taking "the easy way out".
Shipman was given 15 concurrent life sentences after being found guilty of the murders of 15 of his Hyde patients in January 2000. However, an official report - the final conclusions of which are due this summer - concluded that the married father of four had killed at least 215 people, and possibly as many as 260.
Manchester coroner Mr John Pollard, who was in charge of the inquests for the victims, said it was probable only Shipman who knew how many lives he had taken and that "perhaps none of us got to the bottom of his criminality".
Shipman's victims were mainly elderly women living alone, whom he injected with lethal doses of heroin or the heroin substitute diamorphine. The full horrific scale of his murderous career only emerged from Dame Janet Smith's first inquiry report in 2002.
It emerged that at least three separate complaints had been made against him between 1985 and 1994. However, he continued to escape the attention of the police until he was finally arrested in September 1998 for attempting to forge the £386,000 will of one of his victims, Ms Kathleen Grundy, aged 81. That case apart, police remain unclear about the motives for the killings, which Shipman continued to deny, and for which he expressed no remorse.
Cold, detached, driven by a need to control and inevitably accused of "playing God", Shipman was found examining a porcelain figurine at the home of one victim - 77-year-old dance teacher Lizzie Adams - when her dance partner called at her home. "Has she fainted?" Ms Adams's friend inquired, finding her seemingly asleep. "No," replied Shipman. "She's gone."
Ms Jane Ashton Hibbert, whose grandmother, 81-year-old Hilda Hibbert, was another of Shipman's victims, said she would not be mourning his loss. She told the BBC: "I am a bit shocked but I suppose really you could say I was angry he has chosen the easy way out instead of admitting his guilt and showing some compassion to his victims."
Solicitor Anne Alexander, who represents 200 victims' families, said: "We have had many calls from our clients and they are in shock. There are more questions raised than answers."
One central question for the ombudsman's inquiry last night was why Shipman was not on 'suicide watch' in Wakefield. A spokesman for the Prison Officers' Association said his members should not be blamed, and that a man who concealed mass murders could clearly conceal an intention to take his own life.
Confirmation that Shipman had been subject to regular checks - and had been found alive and well barely 80 minutes before he was found hanged - seemed unlikely to spare the Prison Service major criticism in light of the recent suicide attempt by Ian Huntley while awaiting his trial for the Soham murders.
Shipman's solicitor, Mr Giovanni di Stefano, said he was astounded by the news in the light of their planned appeal to the crown court. "It is extremely strange that a man who should have a slight chance should kill himself. I am definitely going to be calling for a proper inquiry into this."