Daughter says she 'saved' her mother from Harold Shipman after noticing chilling detail about Dr Death that made her feel 'uneasy'

A woman has revealed how she saved her mother from the grasp of Britain's most infamous serial killer, Harold Shipman. Patricia Powell, 62, from Hyde, Greater Manchester, believes she prevented her mother, Margaret Beckwith, from becoming one of Shipman's victims by refusing to leave her alone with the GP - just months before his arrest in 1998. Shipman also known as Dr Death, murdered at least 215 victims over a 23-year period, injecting them with lethal doses of painkillers.

He was arrested 25 years ago today on 31 January 2000, and was given 15 life sentences to run concurrently before he took his life in prison four year later. Patricia told the BBC that her mother, who was 64 at the time, had an appointment with Shipman at his Market Street practice where he requested that she left the room so he could examine her mother and provide her with medication. However, the 62-year-old refused to do so after having an uneasy feeling that there was 'something not right with him,' she said.

Patricia added: 'He went to give my mum some medication and I said 'she's not taking it''.'. 'My mum asked me why and I said 'can't you see he's no good? He fobs people off by telling different stories'.'. A woman has revealed how she 'saved' her mother from murderous doctor, Harold Shipman (pictured). After she refused to leave her mother alone in the doctor's room Shipman prescribed medication and the pair left the surgery.

Patricia added: 'Whatever he wanted to do backfired on him because I was there'. She added that other workers in the surgery did not want to listen to negative feedback and believed Shipman to be a 'wonderful' addition to the team. Now, the 62-year-old, whose mother died recently, has lost faith in doctors and no longer feels like she can trust their advice. Killer GP Harold Shipman killed an estimated total of 250 patients over a 27-year period stretching back to 1971, using the drug Diamorphine.

Around 80 percent of his victims were elderly women with his youngest victim a 41-year-old man. Margaret Beckwith, who was 64 at the time, had an appointment with Shipman at his Market Street practice (pictured). Pictured: The recovery couch inside of Dr Harold Shipman's surgery room in Hyde, Greater Manchester. Shipman (seen here on ITV's 2018 World in Action Programme) got away with secretly poisoning and murdering at least 215 of his patients across three decades.

Shipman was convicted of drug offences in 1976 after becoming addicted to pethidine as a young doctor, but he was allowed to carry on practising by the General Medical Council (GMC). He began his killing spree in Pontefract General in the early seventies, and was eventually arrested in September 1998 aged 52, and was jailed for life in January 2000. He was convicted at Preston Crown Court of the murders of 15 elderly women: Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy.

Ten days after his whole life-term conviction plus a four-year sentence for forgery, the GMC struck Shipman off the register. A year after his sentencing an inquiry was launched which concluded that the family doctor had killed at least 215 of his patients between 1975 and 1998, during which he had also practised in Todmorden, West Yorkshire (1974–1975), and Hyde, Greater Manchester (1977–1998).

A sixth and final report in 2005 found further suspicions about other deaths in his early career and Dame Janet Smith, the judge who submitted the report, estimated his total victim count over that 27-year period was 250. On the eve of his 58th birthday Shipman was found hanged in his cell in Wakefield Prison in January 2004. His wife Primrose Shipman, who maintained her husband's innocence after his conviction, received his full NHS pension, which she would not have been entitled to had Shipman lived past age 60.