A retired GP who worked with killer Harold Shipman has told an inquiry flaws in the death certification process allowed the murderer to "cover his tracks".

Dr Norman Beenstock told the public inquiry in Manchester, which is looking at the Shipman case, he was the second doctor to signed 18 cremation certificates for patients after Shipman.

Dr Beenstock practised at the Clarendon House Surgery in Hyde, Greater Manchester, which was based in the same place as Shipman's Donneybrook Surgery.

He told the inquiry at Manchester Town Hall that he had countersigned the certificates over 13 years from 1980 to 1993.

I was reliant on what Dr Shipman told me and I would have trusted a fellow GP

Dr Norman Beenstock

Dr Beenstock called for a reform of death certifying legislation, which has not been altered since Shipman's killing spree.

The GP, who retired in 1993, said questions are hard to answer during the process and one doctor must rely blindly on what another doctor tells him.

He said he always saw Shipman for a face-to-face chat about the circumstances surrounding the deaths for which he was signing the certificates.

However, he said Shipman "deliberately misled" him over sudden deaths to avoid them being reported to the coroner.

"I was reliant on what Dr Shipman told me and I would have trusted a fellow GP to have been honest and open with me," said Dr Beenstock

"I accepted Dr Shipman's explanations on the circumstances relation to each death at the time.

Life sentence

"He appears to have covered his tracks well. In hindsight, he only told me what he wanted me to know."

He denied that he was in any way deficient when backing up Shipman's forms adding it should not be part of a GP's job to be involved in such legislation.

Shipman is serving a life sentence at Frankland jail, County Durham.

The first stage of the public inquiry ruled the serial killer murdered at least 215 people.