AN appeal by the family of serial killer Harold Shipman against Greater Manchester Police for failing to record a complaint by them has been rejected.

Relatives of the mass murderer from Hyde had appealed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to overrule a GMP decision not to record the complaint - which was lodged after police refused to return items belonging to the doctor.

The Shipman family fought the police decision to not return a typewriter on which he forged the will of one of his victims, as well as medical bags in which he would have carried the morphine he used to kill his victims.

And when the police refused to hand them over - saying they should be destroyed out of courtesy to his victims - a complaint was made by a member of the family. A separate complaint was later made to the IPCC saying that the force should have recorded the first complaint, but had failed to do so.

But now the IPCC has decided that GMP did nothing wrong in failing to record the complaint, as it was about a "policy decision" rather than about the conduct of an individual officer.

IPCC commissioner for the north west, Naseem Malik, said: "I have decided that Greater Manchester Police's decision not to return the property in question was a policy matter. Therefore, as the complaint is not about a conduct matter, there is no requirement for it to be recorded - and it falls outside the remit of the IPCC.

"This decision is final."

Ms Malik added: "The issue of what happens to the property remains a matter between Greater Manchester Police and the Shipman family."

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