Age: various
Sex: male
Date: 1 Apr 2019
Place: Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Gosport
Operation Magenta was launched in April 2019 to look into the deaths of several hundreds of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital who died through having their lives shortened through the unjustified use of opioid painkillers between 1987-2001.
The police said that they would be interviewing people under caution over 700 deaths.
The operation was the fourth criminal probe into the deaths. The three previous investigations into 92 of the deaths resulted in no charges being brought. However, in November 2021, Hampshire's police and crime commissioner said, 'It's disgraceful and appalling, and the sheer volume of criminality that I think is coming out of the investigation is horrendous'.
A previous independent panel, the Gosport Independent Panel, in 2018 reported that more than 450 people had their lives shortened by the use of opioids without medical justification. The report added that there had been disregard for human life over the period.
The head of the investigation said that they were reviewing millions of pages of documents, including more than 700 patient records and 15,000 death certificates, as well as material from the three previous investigations.
The investigation was described as 'Britain's largest murder investigation', and to be costing Hampshire Constabulary £2m a year. It was also described as an 'incredibly large investigation'.
