BRITAIN'S 'DR. DEATH' HAD ABUSED DRUGS, INQUIRY TOLD

LONDON -- A public inquiry into a British family doctor suspected of being
the world's worst serial killer heard on its opening day Wednesday that he
had a history of drug abuse but had still been allowed to practice medicine.

Caroline Swift, head of the inquiry's legal team, told the hearing that
Harold Shipman, dubbed "Dr. Death," was convicted in 1975 of forging
prescriptions to feed his reliance on the painkiller pethidine but that
authorities had ignored it.

Shipman was found guilty in January 2000 of killing 15 of his elderly
patients in Hyde, near the northern city of Manchester, by injecting them
with overdoses of heroin.

Inquests have since added another 25 to the list of unlawful killings, and
a report has linked him directly to 236 other suspicious deaths. The public
inquiry will examine at least 466 cases, but Dame Jane Smith, the judge
presiding over the inquiry, said the number could rise.

Officials hope the inquiry will provide an accurate count of Shipman's victims.