Manchester - A widow who died while being treated by Harold Shipman for a cough was unlawfully killed, a coroner ruled yesterday.
The South Manchester coroner, Mr John Pollard, said there were "striking similarities" between the death of Mrs Sarah Ashworth (74), and those of the 15 women Shipman was convicted of murdering. He said it would be "an affront to common sense" to seek to explain those by mere coincidence.