'No warning' of GP suicide; Shipman probe's findings.

Byline: By Stephen White

THE suicide of mass- murdering GP Harold Shipman could not have been predicted or prevented, a report has found.

But staff at the jail where he died have been criticised by Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Stephen Shaw.

Shipman is thought to have killed more than 250 of his patients - most elderly women - although he was only convicted of 15murders.

He died just four years into a life sentence.

The former Hyde GP used bed sheets to hang himself from his cell window in Wakefield prison, Yorkshire. Shaw's report criticised decisions that had curbed Shipman's prison privileges, meaning he could not phone wife Primrose.

Shipman had been on suicide watch but was taken off it.

Shaw dismissed allegations that Shipman had been taunted into killing himself by prison officers.

But he said staff did not seem to have realised he was at risk of committing suicide.

He said: "I am critical of the fact that staff at Wakefield do not appear to have been alerted to the man's long-term risk of suicide or what might finally trigger it."

Shipman was described as "very emotional" and "close to tears" by a prison doctor weeks before his death.

Gloria Ellis, who found her close friend Winifred Mellor, 73, dead after one of Shipman's home visits said prison authorities should have "kept a closer eye on him".

Mr Shaw's report contains 17 recommendations for staff in Britain's high-security prisons

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MURDERER: Shipman