Exclusive: Aneez Esmail says treating dying man in extreme pain six years ago changed his mind on helping terminally ill patients die

The medical adviser to the public inquiry into killings by the family doctor Harold Shipman has said he now believes that legalising assisted dying is necessary and would protect vulnerable patients.

Aneez Esmail, a GP, was the only medical adviser to the inquiry in 2000 into Shipman’s mass murder of patients – killings facilitated by Shipman’s power as a GP.