BRITAIN: The jail cell suicide of killer GP Harold Shipman "could not have been predicted or prevented", an official report said yesterday.
But the report's author, Stephen Shaw, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, made a series of criticisms of prison authorities and went on to make 17 recommendations to prevent further deaths.
He specifically criticised decisions made in relation to Shipman under the prison privileges scheme, which meant the former Greater Manchester GP was not able to telephone his wife, Primrose.
And he also expressed concern that details of Shipman having been on suicide watch before were not passed from Frankland Prison to Wakefield Prison, where he died.
Britain's worst serial killer killed himself four years after starting his sentence of 15 life terms.
Shipman, who murdered at least 250 patients, used a ligature of torn bed sheets to hang himself in his cell at HMP Wakefield on January 13th last year, a day before his 58th birthday.
It was the second death at the jail that week. Despite previous threats to kill himself, Shipman was not put on suicide watch at the jail. Some relatives of Shipman's victims were today critical of the prison authorities, saying they felt "cheated" the GP had been able to kill himself.
And the report also came under fire from experts who said Shipman's suicide could have been predicted.
Mr Shaw's report does criticise decisions made at Wakefield concerning Shipman's prison privileges.
The GP had been dropped from standard to basic because he refused to take part in offending-behaviour courses in which inmates are encouraged to discuss their crimes and admit their guilt.
The loss of privileges meant he could no longer afford to telephone his wife and he was described as "very emotional" and "close to tears" by a prison doctor weeks before his death.
Mr Shaw dismissed allegations that Shipman had been told to "go hang yourself" by prison officers before his death.
But he added: "I am critical of the fact that staff at Wakefield do not appear to have been alerted to the man's long-term risk of suicide or what might finally trigger it."