GP denies murder

Angela Woodruff, 54, told the jury at Preston Crown Court, that she suspected something was wrong when she discovered her mother had left a new will, leaving her entire estate to Shipman.

Shipman, 53, of Hyde, Greater Manchester, denies murdering Mrs Woodruff's mother Kathleen Grundy, 81, and 14 other women patients. He denies forging the will of Mrs Grundy, who left nearly £400,000.

Softly spoken Mrs Woodruff, a solicitor in Warwick, said the following day she travelled to her mother's home in Hyde to make funeral arrangements and to sort out her mother's affairs. She also visited Dr Shipman to find out what had happened. "Dr Shipman told us that he had seen my mother the previous day before her death for a routine thing. He said she was at his surgery - he didn't say what it was for.

"He said that she had conveyed to him she was feeling unwell. He mentioned, but was vague about, chest pains." Shipman told Mrs Woodruff that he then visited her mother on the morning of her death to take a blood sample before his surgery opened.

Mrs Woodruff added: "He wasn't specific about my mother but he did say that sometimes old people complain about feeling unwell before they die and then simply die. He implied it was old age." Two weeks after Mrs Grundy's burial on July 1, 1998, her daughter had a telephone conversation with Brian Burgess of Hamilton Ward solicitors in Market Street, Hyde.

He told her he had received what purported to be a new will dated June 9, 1998, a covering letter dated June 22, 1998 and a letter by someone called Smith on June 28, 1998.

Mrs Woodruff explained: "I became very concerned. It was badly typed and my mother was meticulously tidy."

She described her mother as: "Just amazing. She still drove, did her own shopping, cleaning and gardening."

The trial continues.

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