Shipman public inquiry begins
The public inquiry into the crimes of British serial killer GP Harold Shipman is set to open.
Relatives of victims of the family doctor from Hyde, Greater Manchester, won the right for a public hearing into Shipman's career after a long-running legal battle.
A High Court judge, Dame Janet Smith, will begin an investigation into the deaths of at least 466 of the doctor's potential victims. Her far-reaching inquiry, being held at Manchester Town Hall, is expected to last two years.
An interim report expected by the end of this year, however, could reveal the true death toll of the GP, now serving life for the murders of the 15 elderly women patients he killed by heroin injection.
The first phase of the inquiry will examine Shipman's career from 1974, when he started practising in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, to the time of his arrest in 1998.
Dame Janet has said she hopes to be able to determine in each of the 466 individual cases whether they were likely to have been further Shipman victims.
She said the number of 466 could increase but she stressed that should not be seen yet as an estimate of the number of victims Shipman might have claimed.
She said: "I anticipate there will be many cases in which I will be able to say there is no cause for suspicion.
"However, it will not be possible in every case for me to say one way or the other," she added. She said she hoped to be able to reach definite conclusions in "hundreds" of cases.
The second phase of the inquiry next year will examine how Shipman, now 55, was able to continue killing for so long undetected and the roles played by the different authorities.
A third phase will look at possible changes in procedures through a series of seminars before the judge issues her final report, expected in spring 2003.
