IN: Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 - 13 January 2004) was a British general practitioner and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of fifteen murders for killing patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released. The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, which was chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman's crimes.

Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. Shipman was charged with the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998. His legal representatives tried, but failed, to have the Grundy case, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no motive was apparent.  On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he never be released, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy's will. On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off its register. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners.  While many additional charges could have been brought, authorities concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already handed down rendered further litigation unnecessary.  Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, steadfastly maintained her husband's innocence, even after his conviction.  Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a ten-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman". However, he was acquitted. Historian Pamela Cullen has argued that because of Adams' acquittal, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the British system until the Shipman case.

What year did he go on trial?

OUT: Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999.


IN: Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk (born Michael Lee Curran, 8 June 1958) is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released several solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist and has been the lead singer for King Crimson since 2013. His work has been variously credited to "Jakko", "Jakko Jakszyk", and "Jakko M. Jakszyk". Before joining King Crimson, he led bands for over thirty years, including 64 Spoons, Dizrhythmia, 21st Century Schizoid Band, Jakszyk Fripp Collins, and Rapid Eye Movement.

Since 2002, Jakszyk's connections to the musicians in and around King Crimson had grown closer (via the 21st Century Schizoid Band, Gavin Harrison's recruitment into King Crimson in 2007, and Jakszyk's own developing friendship with Robert Fripp, which led to Jakszyk being invited to remix King Crimson's 1995 album THRaK for reissue) . In January 2010, Jakszyk and Fripp began recording ambient instrumental pieces on a casual basis: this eventually developed into a full song-based project involving Mel Collins. Gavin Harrison and King Crimson bass player Tony Levin were brought in to complete the recordings, which were released in May 2011 on the Panegyric label as an album called A Scarcity of Miracles credited to Jakszyk Fripp & Collins. At the time, King Crimson was in a "dormant" phase, but the involvement of three current band members, one former band member and a previously separate singer-songwriter in this new project led to speculation that King Crimson was about to reactivate and would recruit Jakszyk as a new frontman.  Initially Fripp demurred these suggestions. In an online diary entry, he described the trio as an endeavour which "has the Crimson gene, but is not quite KC. It is a Crimson ProjeKct, although this was not the intention. Given the gene pool, I suppose this counts as evolution. If JFC were named as a ProjeKct, which would be legitimate IMO, then all manner of expectations, categorisations, limitations & dopey commentaries would be launched to deter the ears of innocent audients". Fripp went on to comment that the origin of the trio was in fact a proposed but abandoned ProjeKct Seven (featuring himself, Jakszyk, Collins, Levin, Harrison and possibly some other players) and described the forthcoming A Scarcity of Miracles as "one of my favouritist (sic) albums, of those where I am a determining element". A Scarcity of Miracles was met with a good critical response and a mixed welcome from the King Crimson fanbase. Due to Fripp's retirement from live performance, the release was not supported by a concert tour. Fripp's formal retirement from the music industry in 2012 stifled most of the remaining rumours.  On 24 September 2013, Fripp made the surprise announcement that he was launching a new lineup of King Crimson, with its first tour planned for September 2014. Shortly afterwards the personnel list was announced, with Jakszyk confirmed as lead singer and second guitarist. The new King Crimson lineup continued and expanded the Scarcity of Miracles project personnel: other members besides Fripp and Jakszyk were Mel Collins, three members from the 2009 Crimson band (Gavin Harrison, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto) and another new recruit, American drummer Bill Rieflin. This version of Crimson toured the UK, Paris and Utrecht followed by shows in Canada and Japan in 2015. The band toured in Europe is 2016 with Jeremy Stacey replacing Rieflin.  in September Jakko was awarded the 'Chris Squire Virtuoso award' at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards at Shakespeare's Globe in London. It was presented to him by comedian and actor Ade Edmondson.

Did the tour happen?

OUT:
This version of Crimson toured the UK, Paris and Utrecht followed by shows in Canada and Japan in 2015.