A NEIGHBOUR told the Harold Shipman murder trial how she discovered the body of one of his 15 alleged victims.

Sheila Ward told the jury at Preston Crown Court she found Irene Turner, 67, dead in bed just minutes after Shipman had left her house.

Shipman, 53, who denies killing 15 female patients and of forging the will of one of his alleged victims, asked Ms Ward to help Mrs Turner pack a bag for the hospital, but 'not immediately'.

Earlier in the trial the Crown submitted that Shipman gave Mrs Turner a lethal injection of morphine and left her to die at the house in St Paul's Hill Road, Hyde, on July 11, 1996.

On that day Ms Ward was looking out of her front window when she saw Shipman in his car, the jury heard.

She told the court: "He asked me to go over in five minutes and pack a bag for Mrs Turner because he had to send her into hospital.

"He said that he was going off to do some tests and would be back in 10 minutes."

Ms Ward waited a few minutes then walked across the road and found her friend in bed. She said: "I thought she was dead, but I wasn't certain at that stage."

Ms Ward went to Mrs Turner's daughter Carol, who lived with her husband Michael Woodruff, but there was no one in. She went home and saw that Shipman had returned.

"I went into the house as he came out," she said. "He said to me 'This lady is dead'."

Ms Ward added: "I said to the doctor 'Was it cancer?' and he said 'No it was diabetes'."

The jury heard that Mrs Turner, who had successfully beaten breast cancer, called the doctor out because she was suffering from a bad cold.

Her son-in-law Mr Woodruff told the court that although Mrs Turner had a cold she was as 'bright as a button'. He said Shipman was 'cold and calculating' when he told him there was no need for a post mortem and that there would be no problem with the death certificate because of the 'number of tablets' she was on.

Alfred Isherwood, another son-in-law, went to Shipman's surgery the following day to collect her death certificate. He asked Shipman how Mrs Turner had died and Shipman told him it was heart disease.

The jury heard that no request was made to Tameside General Hospital for Mrs Turner to be admitted.

Home Office pathologist Dr John Rutherford said that Mrs Turner had a degree of heart disease, which could have led to her death.

But he said it would have been an 'astonishing coincidence' for that to kill her at the same time as she had high levels of morphine in her body.

The trial continues.

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