Former GP who was convicted of killing 15 of his patients, all female, at his surgery in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in the 1990s, giving them lethal doses of morphine. Suspicion was raised when the daughter of his last victim found that Shipman had crudely forged her mother's will. Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000, with the trial judge recommending that he should never be released, and two years later the Home Secretary agreed. An official inquiry in July 2002 concluded that there was enough evidence to decide that Shipman had killed 215 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific serial killer. Some reports claimed that he may have committed around 460 murders. Shipman, who never accepted responsibility for his actions, hanged himself in his prison cell on 13 January 2004, the day before what would have been his 58th birthday, and the full extent of his crimes will probably be never known as a consequence.
