Warder 'told Shipman to hang himself'

Serial killer Harold Shipman said a prison officer had told him to "go and hang himself ", a fellow inmate told an inquest today.

Lifer David Smith claimed Shipman was his best friend in Wakefield Prison, where the struck-off doctor was found hanging in his cell in January last year.

Smith told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that he overheard a conversation between Shipman and another inmate about what a prison officer had said to him.

"I did hear him say that an officer told him to go and hang himself and if he didn't know how to do it, he'd be shown how to do it."

Shipman, 57, was given a life sentence in 2000 after he was convicted of the murder of 15 of his patients. A

public inquiry later concluded he probably killed about 250 patients, mainly in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

Smith told the jury that some of Shipman's privileges had been removed a month before his death. "He said it was because he wouldn't talk to officers but he said that is 'their way of getting at me'."

He added Shipman told him: "They're bullying me because I wouldn't talk to officers." Smith was giving evidence on the second day of the inquest into Shipman's death, which continues. He said he regularly played cards with Shipman and other inmates and the doctor never seemed suicidal.