The family of Harold Shipman’s first victim fear there are hundreds more yet to be identified, 20 years after the sadistic doctor’s suicide.
The medic made a late-night house call in 1975 to give cancer patient Eva Lyons, 71, a fatal dose of diamorphine, before asking for a cup of coffee. Moments later, he brazenly told her unsuspecting husband, Richard: “I’m sorry to say she’s dead.”
The pensioner’s family only learned she was a victim of one of Britain’s worst serial killers more than 25 years later. In 2002, a £20million inquiry laid bare the true scale of Shipman’s depravity naming 215 victims, including Eva.
But now, exactly two decades after “Dr Death” killed himself in HMP Wakefield, Eva’s granddaughter, Debbie Bartlett, 62, says she believes the actual death toll could be much higher.
Nobody can forget the face of Harold Shipman (Getty Images)In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, interior designer Debbie said: “I’m 100% sure there are other victims who have never been identified. Shipman was a sadistic, evil killer.”
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Debbie has told how her grandfather, known as Dick, went to his grave never knowing his wife had been the victim of Shipman’s bloodthirsty killing spree. But she always had concerns about the night Eva was killed, saying it was strange he gave the pensioner an injection in the back of her hand.
Deborah, who found out two days before her 14th birthday that her gran was dead, recalled: “My grandmother had cancer of the oesophagus, and had been horribly ill from treatment.
Harold Shipman and his wife Primrose (Daily Mirror)“But she was making plans for the future and we had no cause to think her death was imminent. There was total trust [in Shipman]. My parents looked up to Shipman. He came in, gave her an injection in the back of her hand for the pain and then asked for a cup of coffee. He said he’d check on her and then just announced she was dead.”
Eva’s cause of death was put down as cancer in paperwork filled in by Shipman himself. It was not until 25 years later that Debbie and her mother Norma found out the truth that she had been murdered at her home in Todmorden, West Yorks.
Debbie Bartlett is the granddaughter Eva Lyons (Debbie Bartlett)Shipman was arrested in 1998 after suspicions were raised about the death of Kathleen Grundy, who recently changed her will to include the doctor. The police investigation into the GP raised red flags, with officers finding many of his patients suddenly passing away. Elderly women died in the afternoon, fully clothed and sitting in chairs with their doors unlocked.
In July 2000, Shipman was convicted of 15 murders, but an inquiry later ruled he had killed 215 of his patients. Debbie is now consumed by anger after learning that Shipman should have been struck off in 1975 by the General Medical Council.
He was arrested for forging prescriptions to feed his drug addiction and the following year he appeared in court on 82 charges including fraud. Shipman was convicted and fined £600 but the GMC failed to take action and he was free to start up as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
Debbie said: “My anger now is that I can’t understand how he was allowed to continue to practice. My anger is directed there. People in Hyde knew. He was called ‘Dr Death’ because there was death after death after death.
Eva Lyons, centre, was a victim of Harold Shipman (BBC/Wall to Wall Media/Family Archive - Debbie Bartlett)“My grandfather was innocently standing next to what he thought was a lovely, kind GP who turned out to be one of the worst serial killers of all time. My grandfather actually saw him kill his wife, even if he didn’t know it. I’ve had to come to terms with that, I’ve found it horrendous. She was a test run for all the others who he was going to go on and kill.”
Eva’s family were given £10,000 in compensation but as Debbie points out, it was “never about the money”. Shipman hanged himself in Wakefield jail on January 13, 2004, the day before his 58th birthday.
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His death signalled the end of the search for answers and he never revealed what drove him to kill on such a scale. Last night Debbie relived the moment Shipman’s suicide was announced.
Harold Shipman had a surgery in Hyde, Kent (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS)She said: “I had a call from a friend and he just said, ‘Turn on the TV’. I remember it like it was yesterday, I just said out loud, ‘You’ve met your f***ing maker’. Shipman’s victims weren’t grey, elderly, push-over, lonely souls who were waiting to die and happy to have a doctor to come around. These people had personalities.
“My grandparents were a pillar of the Todmorden community, they played tennis, they played bowls, they belonged to the amateur dramatics society. They were colourful, lively people who were intelligent. They survived the First World War and they went through the Second World War.”
She added: “Whenever I think about Shipman I think about the TV images of him walking down the road with his beard. He was a smug, arrogant, calculating b*****d. That’s how I see him.
“He’s evil and we will never know what kick he got out of doing this. His God complex meant he thought he could kill who he wanted.”
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