Harold Shipman was convicted at Preston crown court in January 2000 of the murder of 15 elderly patients with lethal injections of morphine. A public inquiry was launched in June 2001 to investigate the extent of his crimes, how they went undetected for so long, and what could be done to prevent a repeat of the tragedy. A total of 250 murders of patients were ascribed to Shipman over a 23 year period. An independent public inquiry into the issues arising from the case of Harold Shipman was conducted after his trial. This was chaired by Dame Janet Smith and was split into two parts. The report of the first part examined the individual deaths of Shipman’s patients. The second part examined the systems in place that failed to identify his crimes
