Shipman's murder toll up to 250

The public inquiry into the murders by British serial killer Dr Harold Shipman wound up yesterday, hearing that he probably killed up to 15 patients in his first job as a hospital doctor at Pontefract General Infirmary in west Yorkshire. This took his probable murder toll to 250.

Details emerged of his youngest known victim - a 4-year-old girl killed in the 10 minutes her mother was away from her bed having a cup of tea.

The inquiry found how, during a particularly suspicious six-month stint on a medical ward in 1972, Shipman probably roamed around unmonitored in the late evening, recklessly testing out the boundaries of drugs he found at his disposal.

Susie Garfitt, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, was desperately ill with pneumonia when her mother, Ann, met Shipman beside her daughter's bed in November 1972.

"I could see that Susie was dying [and] I told the doctor to be kind," Ann Garfitt told the inquiry. "I gave [her] a kiss and said a little prayer for her and went outside for a cup of tea."

The toddler's mother said Shipman had seemed to suggest that medication would only prolong the child's suffering.

Garfitt had not given permission to hasten her daughter's likely death but when she returned she found the child's door closed.

"A nurse came out and said she was sorry but Susie had died," said Garfitt. "I was very shocked. I had not expected this."

The inquiry's investigations found that in a third of Pontefract cases certified by Shipman, the young medic was alone with the patient at the time of death - compared with only 1.6 per cent for other doctors.

"I think, in the early days, one of Shipman's motivations may well have been a desire to experiment with drugs," concluded inquiry chairwoman Dame Janet Smith, delivering her sixth inquiry report at Manchester Town Hall.

"I think he was fascinated by drugs and liked to experiment with them. It is quite likely that some of the deaths [he] caused resulted from [this]. He may well have tried out larger than usual doses of drugs, being reckless as to the consequences for his patients, who were often elderly and ill."

Dame Janet disagreed with those in the medical profession who considered Shipman to be a one-off.

"It was the very fact that Shipman was a doctor that enabled him to kill," she said. "His profession not only enabled him to kill but it allowed his killing to remain undetected."

- INDEPENDENT