Knutsford auction house Frank Marshall defends decision to help sell Harold Shipman letters (From Knutsford Guardian)

Knutsford auction house Frank Marshall defends decision to help sell Harold Shipman letters

2:14pm Wednesday 30th September 2009

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A KNUTSFORD auction house was this week embroiled in controversy surrounding the sale of letters written by serial killer Harold Shipman.

But Frank Marshall, based in Church Hill, told the Guardian it would stand by its decision to help sell the items.

Nick Hall, principal auctioneer, said they were important historical documents that could help those who studied criminals’ behaviour.

“There are going to be a lot of acrimonious comments, which is fully understandable,” he said.

“The flip side of it is they are an important document relating to social history.

“It’s an incredible insight into the mind and the workings of one of history’s biggest serial killers.”

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Harold Shipman wrote the 65 letters to former patients and friends Mavis and David Stott after his arrest in 1998 until his suicide in 2004.

In them he tells of his trial, criticises legal officials and repeatedly denies his guilt.

Shipman, who is believed to have killed more than 200 people, also shows no remorse and even says some of his victims’ families were looking for ‘two minutes of fame’.

On Tuesday morning the Guardian read more of the documents, including a letter about the guilty verdict.

“Shock is something I’ve seen in others and helped them, but I never felt I would need that kind of help,” wrote Shipman.

“When we all got around to realising the verdict was for real, we thought of an appeal.”

The letters remained a secret until Mr and Mrs Stott’s son, David, cleared out their house in 2006.

Then, earlier this year, he brought them to Frank Marshall.

The auction house will now include the letters in a sale on November 10.

They are expected to fetch thousands of pounds, but estimating a more precise figure is difficult for staff.

Frank Marshall has already contacted professionals who could buy the letters to help them study such crimes.

“They will be interesting documents to be studied and hopefully some information can be gleaned from them,” said Mr Hall.

But this week several people, including some of the victims’ families, have criticised plans to make a profit from the letters.

Father Denis Maher, a parish priest in Hyde who supported Shipman’s victims, said the decision had forced him to revisit the ‘nightmare’.

“How must it feel for the people who lost their loved ones?” he said.

“For me, personally, it brought back all the worst aspects of it.

“I felt upset, to put it mildly, and I just thought it was opening up old wounds again and causing more pain and grief for people who have gone through so much.”

Shipman was jailed for life in January 2000 for murdering 15 patients. But a public inquiry later found he was believed to have killed 215 people in 23 years.

Shipman, 57, committed suicide in Wakefield Prison in January 2004

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