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Pensioner WAS killed by Shipman

25/ 5/2005

A NEW inquest into a patient of ex-Hyde GP Harold Shipman ruled the pensioner was murdered.

The fresh inquest was ordered into the death of Marjorie Hope-Waller following an application to the High Court, in the light of fresh evidence aired at the Shipman Inquiry.

Mrs Hope-Waller's was the only inquest where coroner John Pollard had delivered an open verdict, in the light of available evidence before the inquiry sat.

Jean Thompson, a friend of the 79-year-old retired school teacher - formerly of Kew Avenue, Hyde - said they had met at a dog owners' club.

Two weeks before her death, she had complained of flu-like symptoms but it had not stopped her walking her dogs - a German Shepherd and two labradors - on Werneth Low. A day or two before her death, Shipman told the widower not to go out and to re-home her German Shepherd.

Mrs Thompson said: "I took it back because I had had it as a puppy. But would all this have happened if a German Shepherd had been sat by her side?"

Around the same time, she had withdrawn £60 from her friend's Halifax account and given it to her.

But following the death only a few coppers were found in her pockets. She added that she spoke to her Mrs Hope-Waller by telephone on the morning of her death - 18 April 1996.

She said she was feeling better and made no mention of Shipman going to see her that day. So she was amazed to receive a call from another friend, Glyn Jones, that same day, who said Shipman had found her dead at her home at around 2pm.

"We went to bedroom and found her lying on the bed in her day clothes. Some time later Dr Shipman arrived at the house and confirmed Marjorie had died and issued a death certificate to Mr Jones."

Medical expert Dr John Grenville said new evidence meant one could discount cause of death as bronchial penumonia.

"By several orders of magnitude it is much more likely that Mrs Hope-Waller was murdered by Shipman by injection of opiates."

Mr Pollard said it was beyond reasonable doubt the new verdict should be that Mrs Hope-Waller was unlawfully killed.

Verdict: Unlawful killing.