Shipman found dead in prison cell.(news)(Harold Shipman)

Harold Shipman, one of history's most prolific medical murderers, was found dead in his cell after apparently hanging himself with bedsheets attached to the bars of his window.

Shipman was serving multiple life sentences for murdering 15 women patients while working as a general practitioner in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

An inquiry into his case by appeal court judge Janet Smith later found that he had killed at least 215 patients, and possibly as many as 260.

He had just entered the fourth year of his imprisomnent, and would have turned 58 this week. On his conviction, trial judge Justice Forbes had told him, "Your crimes are so heinous that in your …