'I saved my mother from killer GP Harold Shipman'

Twenty five years after GP Harold Shipman became the UK's most prolific serial killer, residents of the town where he worked have told how his crimes will always leave their mark.

Found guilty of murdering 15 patients under his care, it is thought the family doctor may have killed up to 260 people in Hyde, Greater Manchester, between the 1970s and the late 1990s.

Many of his victims were elderly women who died after he injected them with lethal doses of diamorphine.

One resident, Patricia Powell, said she believes she saved her mother's life by refusing to leave her alone with the GP in 1998, just a few months before he was arrested.

She said her mother Margaret Beckwith, who was then aged 64, had an appointment with Shipman at his practice, The Surgery on Market Street.

She said he had intended to give her mother medication and asked Ms Powell to leave the room so he could examine her.

However, she refused after feeling there was simply "something not right with him", the 62-year-old said.

"He went to give my mum some medication and I said 'she's not taking it'," she said.

"My mum asked me why and I said 'can't you see he's no good? He fobs people off by telling different stories'."

Ms Powell said she told Shipman, who was convicted in 2000, "I'm sorry. I'm not leaving" and he eventually wrote a prescription before the pair left unharmed.

"Whatever he wanted to do backfired on him because I was there," she said.

The unassuming doctor was thought to have flown under the radar for so long after building a veneer of trust among his patients.

"Nobody wanted to listen in the doctor's surgery. They thought he was so wonderful," Ms Powell added.

She said her mother only died recently and she was happy to have had all those years with her "because I took her away from him".

But she added: "It wasn't fair on all the others that got murdered. I don't trust doctors any more."

Louise Aliceto said she was a patient of Shipman but he "dismissed me".

She said: "I went to him once with a rash on my hand and he sent me away.

"He said 'if everybody come to me with a rash on their hand this surgery would be always be full'."

The 61-year-old said she left thinking he was "a horrible person" and eventually discovered she had known some of his victims.

"He was a horrible, evil man to do that to people," she said.

Ian Whyatt was Shipman's patient as a child and said he has friends whose family members were victims of the GP.

He described him as a "nasty, horrible person" who was "arrogant".

Now 57, Mr Whyatt said Shipman did not like it when patients thought they knew what was wrong with them.

"He was basically saying 'I will tell you what is wrong with you'," he said.

"He looked down on everybody as though you shouldn't be there,"

He said his crimes left people terrified of going to the doctors, with some even left too scared to have a flu injection.

Mr Whyatt added: "It took people time to get over it."

Alan Braddock was also one of Shipman's patients and said he "wasn't surprised" when his crimes were exposed.

He recalled Shipman telling him when he gave him a prescription: "Don't waste my time. Get it into a chemist."

The 84-year-old said there was "always something not quite right about him".

He added: "He had an aura and there was something about him that just didn't click."