British Doctor Is Convicted of Killing 15 Women

Jurors convicted a family doctor on Monday of murdering 15 female patients by injecting the middle-aged and elderly women with lethal doses of heroin.

Harold Shipman, 54, who now ranks among Britain’s most prolific modern-day serial killers, was given 15 life sentences, the maximum punishment in Britain, which has no death penalty.

Investigators said he may have killed dozens more patients.

“You are a wicked, wicked man,” Preston Crown Court Judge Thayne Forbes told Shipman, who remained impassive.

“I have little doubt that each of your victims smiled and thanked you as she submitted to your fearful administrations,” Forbes added.

The doctor, who altered medical records at his one-man practice in northern England to cover up his crimes, was also found guilty of forging the $620,000 will of his last victim, 81-year-old Kathleen Grundy.

South Manchester Coroner John Pollard said police investigated as many as 136 deaths of other Shipman patients and that “it would not be unreasonable to say a figure of 150 would be a realistic, possible estimate.”

News reports said 23 more murder charges may be filed. State prosecutor Robert Davies said he was considering other murder charges but did not say how many.

Prosecutors said Shipman killed because he enjoyed “exercising the ultimate power of controlling life and death.”

During his testimony, Shipman claimed that some of the women had hidden health problems. He also said Grundy may have been a drug addict, thus accounting for the high level of heroin in her blood.