Britain’s ‘Dr. Death’ Had Abused Drugs, Inquiry Told
A public inquiry into a British family doctor suspected of being the world’s worst serial killer heard on its opening day Wednesday that he had a history of drug abuse but had still been allowed to practice medicine.
Caroline Swift, head of the inquiry’s legal team, told the hearing that Harold Shipman, dubbed “Dr. Death,” was convicted in 1975 of forging prescriptions to feed his reliance on the painkiller pethidine but that authorities had ignored it.
Shipman was found guilty in January 2000 of killing 15 of his elderly patients in Hyde, near the northern city of Manchester, by injecting them with overdoses of heroin.
Inquests have since added another 25 to the list of unlawful killings, and a report has linked him directly to 236 other suspicious deaths. The public inquiry will examine at least 466 cases, but Dame Jane Smith, the judge presiding over the inquiry, said the number could rise.
Officials hope the inquiry will provide an accurate count of Shipman’s victims.
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