UK police slammed for failings in Shipman case

Inexperience, dishonesty and serious professional failures by police investigators allowed Britain's worst serial killer, Harold Shipman, to continue his killing spree undetected, an official inquiry ruled yesterday.

It also recommended wholesale changes in Britain's system of death certification and coroners' investigations.

Shipman, a family doctor nicknamed "Dr Death", was convicted in 2000 of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life in prison. An inquiry later ruled that he had murdered at least 215 of his patients with heroin injections.

Dame Janet Smith, the judge conducting the latest inquiry, said two police officers at the head of the investigation were "inexperienced" and "not fit for the case".

The lives of three of Shipman's victims "would probably have been saved" if police had done their job properly, she said in a report.

Smith singled out for blame Chief Superintendent David Sykes and Detective Inspector David Smith, both of Greater Manchester Police in northern England.

Sykes had "failed to recognise" that Smith was "out of his depth." Inspector Smith misled colleagues, sought to blame others and his own failures and lied to the inquiry, she said.

Smith also "never understood the issues, never had a plan of action, had no one to help him analyse the information he received, had no one to make suggestions as to the information he should seek ... and was allowed to close the investigation before it was complete," she added.