THE relatives of a "very fit and healthy" former farm labourer were shocked when he died suddenly in a Todmorden residential home, the inquiry investigating serial killer Dr Harold Shipman's death toll was told.

The Manchester hearing was told that Edward Walker, 70, died in Scaithcliffe Hall in 1975. Dr Shipman certified the cause of death as coronary thrombosis due to ischaemic heart disease.

Mr Walker was a patient of the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden when Dr Shipman -- who was convicted in Preston in January 2000 of the murder of 15 former patients -- was in practice there. Many of Shipman's Todmorden patients had links with Burnley General Hospital.

The inquiry was told that in February 2000, following the publicity the murder trial attracted, Phyllis Walker, Mr Walker's daughter-in-law, asked for an investigation into the circumstances of his death.

"He had been a very fit and healthy man, working as farm labourer all his life," she said.

Following his wife's death he had become aggressive and volatile and told relatives he was going to live in Bacup. He became estranged.

But in 1972 he was admitted to hospital in Rochdale because he was drinking heavily and was neglecting himself. The health authority asked Mrs Walker and her husband if they were prepared to have him live with them but they declined, and instead he moved into rented accommodation in Shaw Wood Road, Spring Side, Todmorden.

In October 1974 a Dr Dacre of the Abraham Ormerod centre examined Mr Walker and said he was in good health, with a healthy heart, Mrs Walker said. However, he was moved to Scaithcliffe Hall.

The day before he died Mrs Walker and her husband went to visit him , and he was very upset he was in the home.

At 9am the following day she was told her father-in-law had died from a heart attack during the night , and that Dr Shipman had been called out. It was not known whether this was before or after his death. "It was a great shock," she said.

Mr Walker's death is one of 31 cases being investigated from Shipman's time in Todmoren, dating from March 1974 to September 1975.

Dame Janet Smith, who is leading the inquiry, is expected to produce an interim report from the hearings early next year, outlining which of the patients she believes were killed by Shipman.

A woman thought to be Shipman's first intended victim was today due to describe to the inquiry how she allegedly nearly died during a routine visit made by the former doctor.

Professor Elaine Oswald, a university lecturer, who now lives in Tennessee, was a patient of Shipman's in Todmorden in 1974.