29/04/99 - I've lived 20 years
with an awful secret. I almost let Ripper adopt a child
The Mirror
THE Yorkshire Ripper got the go-ahead to adopt children
just weeks before he was arrested, a council chief revealed
yesterday.
Laurence Coughlin told for the first time how social
workers approved Peter Sutcliffe as a prospective foster
father.
After the Ripper was arrested Mr Coughlin ordered an
immediate cover-up.
He had the file on Sutcliffe, who killed 13 women,
destroyed and the adoption unit which approved him was
later wound up.
Mr Coughlin said: "I made sure that nothing was
ever said about this, even to the police investigating
the killings. I have kept this terrible secret for 20
years. I think about it every day and there are nights
when I just can't get to sleep.
"It's the consequences of what we did that alarms
me so. Had this man not been arrested, he would have
carried on killing and would have ended up looking after
a boy or girl we were responsible for.
"We would have allowed a mass murderer to adopt
a child, whose legal parent was the council. It doesn't
bear thinking about. I was determined the public would
never find out. I have said nothing until now, because
I didn't think the time was opportune."
Mr Coughlin broke his silence after reading the Mirror's
report that the Ripper was to be let out Broadmoor to
visit his sick father.
John Sutcliffe said he regretted that his son and wife
Sonia did not have any children.
Mr Coughlin said: "What few people knew was, they
were planning to."
Social workers questioned the Ripper and his then wife
about their reasons for wanting children.
They visited the couple's home in Bradford before approving
them as fit to adopt.
Mr Coughlin said: "Their lifestyle was investigated
by professional social workers who were quite happy
to let them have a child."
But while Peter Sutcliffe was pretending to be a loving
family man, desperate to raise children, he was also
trawling red light areas for victims.
Police quizzed Sutcliffe, who was a lorry driver, nine
times between 1977 and 1980.
But he wasn't arrested until January 2, 1981.
Just days later Mr Coughlin, who then chaired Bradford
council's social services committee, got a phone call
from John Crook, the department's director. Mr Coughlin,
now 70, said: "John said 'I have some bad news
for you'. Then he told me the council's fostering and
adoption unit had approved Mr and Mrs Sutcliffe as adoptive
parents.
"It took me a few seconds to realise the connection
and then I just blew my top.
"I asked John: 'What the Hell's going to happen
now ... people are going to find out.'
"I ordered John to protect me and the department.
I told him to burn the file and make sure no-one ever
knew what had happened.
"The only people who knew were me, the director
and the people in the unit who had agreed to the Sutcliffes
becoming adoptive parents - and I knew they wouldn't
want it coming out.
"I told the director right away to find some way
of closing the unit down and we did soon afterwards,
saying budget reductions were the reason, but that wasn't
true."
Mr Coughlin believes that even the detectives involved
in the case were never told about the Ripper's adoption
plans.
"I was in London at the time of his trial at the
Old Bailey. Coincidentally, I was staying at the same
hotel as the senior detectives in the case, but I kept
quiet about what I knew. I have decided to speak now
because it is right that the public are aware of what
that man was capable of."
Mr Coughlin - a father of seven, including an adopted
son, with 19 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren
- fears what could have happened if Peter Sutcliffe
had adopted a child, especially a girl.
"It would have ruined their lives, to be associated
with that family and it would have been Bradford Council's
fault.
"Some people may think that Peter Sutcliffe has
been treated harshly. But the time is now right to reveal
this man's plans to care for a child.
"This man was a con merchant. He was interviewed
by the police on several occasions and conned his way
out of it.
"He was interviewed by our social workers several
times and he conned them as well.
"He is a bad, bad man and suggestions that he
should be allowed out of Broadmoor infuriate me.
"Fortunately, he was arrested and the whole thing
was hushed up before any child was placed with them
for appraisal."
The former councillor says he is gaining nothing from
revealing the truth after all these years: "Except
in the hope that Peter Sutcliffe reads it and realises
that something else has been discovered about his past.
"It haunts me that we might have sent a child to
live with this man. It's horrific and it has to made public."
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