THE brain of Harold Shipman is being preserved by scientists searching for clues to the mental flaws that produce a serial killer.

Tissue will be genetically tested and analysed with imaging cameras to find out whether there are traits that could cause behavioural abnormalities.

The tests on the brain of Shipman, who hanged himself in January, are part of a series of confidential Home Office projects assisted by scientists from Broadmoor, the top security psychiatric hospital.

The Home Office has recently been forced to admit that the brains of mass murderers Fred West and Michael Ryan have been kept despite earlier denials. The brain of the gangster Ronnie Kray was also secretly removed.

Although there is no evidence of characteristics that could identify potential murderers in advance, there is considerable interest in the field.

The brains of notorious killers are being preserved until research moves forward enough for brain tissue to yield information about major “miswiring”.

Shipman, a former Manchester GP, committed suicide in Wakefield prison two years after being found guilty of killing 15 patients. An official inquiry concluded he had murdered between 215 and 265 patients, making him Britain’s worst serial killer.

He bequeathed his body to scientific research but for his widely recognised face to reappear as an anatomical specimen in a medical school was considered inappropriate.

Instead, the brain was removed for investigation and the rest of the body is in long-term frozen storage at Sheffield University’s Medico Legal Centre. West Yorkshire police last week confirmed that previous reports of the body being cremated were untrue.

The brain has been examined for signs of degenerative disease or structural abnormality but nothing unusual is believed to have been found.

Similar studies on the brain of Thomas Hamilton, who slaughtered 16 children and their teacher in Dunblane, Stirlingshire, eight years ago, revealed a thyroid disorder associated with violent behaviour.

An inquest into Shipman’s death has been opened and adjourned but David Hinchcliff, the Wakefield coroner, has directed that the body and its organs can be released.

Shipman’s widow Primrose is hoping eventually to bury her husband’s remains despite arguments from her children that the grave would become a target for vandals. It is understood that she believes that waiting until interest in the case has subsided will allow her to conduct a funeral in peace.

The brain tissue will be made available for imaging to analyse its structure using the latest techniques of brain mapping.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in Camberwell, southeast London, have recently identified an association between MAOA, a gene controlling signals in the brain, and anti-social behaviour.

Another related project has used the latest generation of imaging techniques to examine the structures of the brains of dozens of patients at Broadmoor and other hospitals treating violent mentally disordered offenders.

It has found patterns associated with particular traits. Results are to be published later this year.

“We are just learning about brain imaging and there is no doubt there is value in examining all brains, living or dead,” said Sheilagh Hodgins, head of the antisocial behaviour unit at the institute.

“Our biology affects the way we think, how our emotions are expressed, and everything about us. If we can find out why a particular set of genes interact with particular life experiences to create violence, we can start developing ways of preventing it,” she said.

America has been at the forefront of the controversial search for physiological indications of criminal tendencies. But in recent years, scientists have concentrated on genes rather than brain structure.

There was public disgust at plans to conduct research on the brain of Jeffrey Dahmer, the cannibal killer who murdered 17 men before being bludgeoned to death in prison. In the end, his brain was disposed of.

The exact destination of Shipman’s brain and other tissue samples has not been disclosed. The Home Office last week refused to discuss the plans for Shipman’s brain, saying it never commented on individual cases.

Harry Cohen, the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, said he had been fobbed off by the Home Office when he asked a series of parliamentary questions concerning the plans for Shipman’s brain and the questions remained unanswered.

“I am not happy about this,” he said. “To me it raises all sorts of issues. If they find genes that turn people into monsters, what are they going to do with them? “What if, in the future, scientists try to implant the characteristics in other people. I don’t think it is a road we should be going down.”

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