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Killer doctor Harold Shipman kills ninth elderly patient

A photograph of a person holding a needle, about to administer an injection
Image: Shutterstock.com

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Elizabeth Ashworth was a widow who valued her independence. At 81, she still did her own cooking, housework and gardening and refused to give up smoking.

It was while she was gardening that she felt ill and asked her neighbours to fetch a doctor. Shipman arrived and injected her. He told her neighbours that she would not ‘last long’ and when he returned, he asked, ‘Is she still here?’ She wasn’t.

The opiate injection had, as he intended, killed her...