I think Shipman was not then, and maybe even now, the only serial killer doctor in the country
MARION MCMULLEN FOLLOWS THE EVIDENCE AS TOP FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST DR RICHARD SHEPHERD LOOKS AT EVERYTHING FROM NOTORIOUS MURDERERS TO FREAK ACCIDENTS AHEAD OF HIS UK TOUR
You were one of the country’s foremost forensic pathologists and have been involved in some extraordinarily high-profile investigations. Can you tell us about the enquiry into the death of Princess Diana?
That was a fascinating case to work on. What interested me was that they were in a Mercedes which are phenomenally good and safe cars, which are engineered to crumple in a crash, and to withstand highspeed impacts.
It became clear that if Diana and Dodi Fayed had been wearing seat belts, they both should have survived.
You also investigated the serial killer Dr Harold Shipman. Did the fact that he was a fellow doctor get to you?
Yes, because as a medical professional, you should be caring. Even as a forensic pathologist I think we must be caring.
What upsets me is the fact there were so many opportunities to have stopped Shipman earlier. There had been a previous police investigation, but the allegations were dismissed. It’s really quite scary that he was allowed to keep going and amazingly he was known to the local undertakers as Dr Death.
How did he get away with it?
So many people loved and trusted him as their GP. He was said to have had a fantastic bedside manner. And if he said, “listen, I think we’ll just take some blood for tests. Roll up your sleeve,” you’d immediately agree. Then instead of taking a blood sample he would inject morphine.
It upsets me that he wasn’t stopped when he should have been, but it also upsets me that Dame Janet Smith’s long, public inquiry made all sorts of recommendations about how deaths should be properly and correctly certified, and very few have ever been followed up.
I pretty much think that Shipman was not then, and maybe even now, not the only serial killer doctor in the country.
Are you looking forward to the tour?
I hope it will be a marvellous show, but I’m still nervous about occupying the stage – even dear old Larry Olivier struggled at times to occupy the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It’s funny, I’m not scared stepping into a witness box at a trial and I’m not scared about standing up in front of an audience of 800 doctors or medical students, but put me on my own on a theatre stage and it’s an entirely different matter.
It’s an untried quantity but one I think I’m, in the end, going to enjoy.
What can the audiences expect?
The thread that runs through the first half is an investigation of a possible murder. I tell that story, and it gives me the chance to explain how amazing the human body is.
Yes, the body can go wrong, but it can also be made to go wrong by people poisoning it or hitting it or stabbing it. In my job as a forensic pathologist, I have to understand diseases and also what happens when people are injured, why they die, so I can interpret those injuries and recount the story of what happened. So, we weave the first half of the show around the twists and turns of that investigation.
Along the way, there will be clues to make people do a bit of thinking. We have a reveal after the interval, and then we go into a Q&A with the audience. We hope that during break, people will be arguing amongst themselves. Is it murder? Is it suicide? Or just maybe an accident!
Your book Unnatural Causes was a bestseller and The Seven Ages Of Death came out last month. Why are people so fascinated by true-crime stories?
I think because it’s a part of life that people don’t understand. People always like to try to second-guess the experts. And then there’s also the frisson of, ‘oh my goodness, that could be me there. How would I cope in that situation?’
Now you have retired as a forensic pathologist, what hobbies do you have?
I keep bees. I don’t think I’m a very good beekeeper, but now I have three hives buzzing away. They’re difficult little creatures, but beekeeping is one of those things I always thought I would like to do.
I’ve been doing it for about eight or nine years now. It’s very interesting and hard work learning about them and about how the hives work.
Also, at the end of the year, there’s honey and that’s when the family suddenly appear.
Go to drrichardshepherd.com for ticket and tour details for Dr Richard Shepherd – Unnatural Causes.