A FORMER colleague of Dr Harold Shipman today said the serial killer would never have had the chance to get away with murder if the authorities had not given him a second chance.

Retired GP Dr Michael Grieve was speaking as the Government announced the formation of a new agency to investigate dangerous doctors.

The new National Clinical Assessment Authority, coupled with a system of annual appraisals for doctors, will be a rapid reaction unit to look into complaints from patients and colleagues about doctors' performance and to decide whether they should be subjected to closer investigation.

Dr Grieve blew the whistle on Shipman when he found he was stealing pethidine and forging prescriptions at the former Abraham Ormerod Centre in Todmorden, forcing him to quit in 1975.

Shipman was prescribing the painkilling drug for patients but then stockpiling it for his own use.

When confronted, Shipman confessed to what he had done and asked Dr Grieve and the other partners to cover up for him until he was cured of his addiction.

The following year he appeared in court at Halifax on 82 charges including forgery and fraud. He was fined £600.

The General Medical Council did not impose disciplinary action against him and after a period of treatment he was free to start up as a GP in Hyde where he is believed to have killed more than 250 of his patients, mostly women.

Dr Grieve said they were assured in court that Shipman would not return to general practice and would not work with patients or prescriptions. They understood that he intended taking up an academic career in Durham.

It was a great shock years later when they discovered that he was back in general practice.

Dr Grieve, 72, said: "It is hard to see what else we could have done. The thing is we were told he would not be practising again. Now 30 years later we cannot believe he got back into general practice without any advice or anyone to keep an eye on him."

He added: "When I spoke to the GMC they said they thought he had been a sick man rather than a criminal. He had been to hospital and cured of his addiction and they thought he would be OK."

But today a spokesman for the General Medical Council said the 1976 case was about Dr Shipman's personal abuse of drugs and not about prescribing to other people.

"The GMC received assurances and a psychiatrist's report stating he was cured and unlikely to re-offend, and further assurances from his future employers.

"We did not impose restrictions on him because there seemed no reason to do so," she added.

Dr Shipman certified 22 deaths in Todmorden, more than any of his colleagues. Deaths at the surgery went up by more than 30 per cent during his time there.

Seventeen of the certificates were signed during his last nine months at the surgery including three on one day in early 1975 and two on another. The investigation is said to have discovered a pattern to suspected killings from Shipman's early days in medical practice.

To spare relatives more grief suspected victims have not been named.

Calder Valley MP Chris McCafferty said: "As painful as it is to relatives I think this is where he honed his skills in killing."

Dr Grieve said he found it hard to believe that Dr Shipman had killed in Todmorden.

He said: "All our records were examined in detail and nothing else was found to be wrong or suspected. I don't really see how he could have killed anyone here."

"I am not saying it was impossible. I still find it strange to suggest there was something untoward in Todmorden when we had all that investigation. As far as I know no-one in Todmorden has come forward to suggest they believe that Shipman murdered their Aunty Maggie.

"We blew the whistle on him and I think the people of Todmorden are very grateful that we got rid of him." 'I think people of Todmorden are grateful we got rid of him'