The body of a ninth person is to be exhumed by police in Greater Manchester later today, as part of the continuing investigation into the deaths of former patients of Dr Harold Shipman.
The doctor was committed for trial earlier this week, accused of the murder of a former patient, Ms Kathleen Grundy (81), a former Conservative mayor from Hyde, Greater Manchester. He is also accused of forging a letter and forging Mrs Grundy's £300,000 will, which made him the sole beneficiary.
Dr Shipman will appear at Manchester Crown Court on December 8th to plead to the charges. A second hearing on charges relating to the deaths of three other women - Ms Bianka Pomfret (49), Ms Winifred Mellor (73) and Ms Joan Melia (73) - was adjourned until December 7th.
The eighth body exhumed was that of Mrs Alice "Christine" Kitchen (70), originally from Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, who died in 1994. Her body was exhumed by police early yesterday examination by a Home Office pathologist. Mrs Kitchen was the mother of Mr Joe Kitchen, a member of Tameside Council. The local priest, Father Denis Maher, who attended the exhumation at the request of the family, spoke yesterday of the "distressing and upsetting" events of the past few days. "Yesterday was very distressing for everybody. It felt very lonely and very sad at the cemetery. It was a very cold morning and I wasn't the better for it at all. It reverses the whole process. When one dies it is natural, it is a completion, a close, and when it is reversed it is very upsetting," Father Maher said. Mrs Kitchen's body was re-interred during a short ceremony.
The investigation into the deaths of Dr Shipman's patients is thought to go back as far as 15 years. He was GP for the area for 20 years. The police investigation is having a "dramatic effect" on the local community, according to Father Maher. "Someone said to me recently that Hyde doesn't know what to do with itself. There is a cloud hanging over the place and it could be another two or three years before he comes to trial."