Revelations that Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was declared fit to adopt a child - weeks before his arrest for 13 murders - were today the subject of a Bradford Council investigation.

A former chairman of Bradford social services committee, Lawrie Coughlin, has broken a 20-year silence to tell how Sutcliffe was on the verge of being approved as a foster parent when police finally snared him in January 1981.

Appalled social services bosses destroyed the file on Peter and Sonia Sutcliffe after his arrest and never told police because they wanted to avoid a scandal, says Mr Coughlin.

Today Bradford Council announced it had started an immediate investigation into the alleged cover-up.

"At this stage we have no knowledge of the allegations made by Lawrence Coughlin but we will obviously now make thorough checks to establish the facts," said Councillor John Godward, current chairman of the services to children sub committee.

"We will not be in a position to respond more fully until we have conducted this investigation. Whether or not Peter Sutcliffe was approved to adopt a child, the fact is that at that time no-one knew of his criminal activities, including the police."

Mr Coughlin, 70, a former Lord Mayor of Bradford, was chairman of the district's social services committee in the early 1980s. Now retired from the authority, he lives in north Bradford with his wife, Joan.

Infuriated by reports that Sutcliffe may now be allowed out of Broadmoor to visit his sick father in Bingley, he has decided to tell how the serial killer - who evaded police for six years - also fooled Bradford Council social workers.

He says Sutcliffe and his then-wife Sonia, who were childless, applied to Bradford Council's fostering and adoption unit and were visited at home by social workers, who approved the couple as fit to care for a vulnerable child.

Sutcliffe was meanwhile on the prowl for new victims. He killed 13 women - orphaning 23 children in the process. Ironically, some of these youngsters may have ended up in care.

Today, Mrs Coughlin, 73, said: "Lawrie has always had it on his mind and said 'I'm going to do something'.

"To think Sutcliffe nearly had a foster child, it got so close. My husband has worried about it ever since, it still preys on his mind because as chairman of social services, you have responsibilities. We both worry about it because we have children of our own."

The couple have been married 47 years and have seven children, 19 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Councillor Godward, who joined Bradford Council in 1980, said: "I can't attach any blame to the social workers - Sutcliffe was a high-calibre conman. Techniques have improved since 1980 and this would be less likely to happen now."

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