03/02/05 - 47 more reasons
why Ripper must never be released
Police files show a shocking catalogue of earlier crimes
linked to Sutcliffe
EXCLUSIVE BY DAVID BRUCE
CHIEF CRIME REPORTER
Leeds Today
DETAILS have emerged of a chilling
document suggesting that 13-times killer Ripper Peter
Sutcliffe committed FORTY SEVEN other crimes across
the country. The list will add weight to calls for Sutcliffe
never to be released.
The YEP can reveal that Ripper Squad detectives listed
the 47 crimes – including murders and sex attacks
– on an official TIC (taken into consideration)
form still held in West Yorkshire Police archives.
Detectives strongly suspected that lorry driver Sutcliffe,
now 58, was responsible for the crimes which dated back
to when the serial killer was in his late teens. Details
of the 47 other offences which Sutcliffe was linked
to were drawn up after investigations into crimes across
Britain as police hunted a killer who brought fear to
the North.
One of the officers involved in compiling the list,
retired detective constable Alan Foster, said today
that he believed all the crimes should be re-investigated
bearing in mind advances in DNA technology. He said
crimes were included only if there was strong suspicion
that Sutcliffe could have committed them – and
matched his lorry journeys around the country.
Mr Foster said he believed the families of all victims
had an absolute right to know who had killed their loved
ones. He claimed that Sutcliffe may have eventually
admitted to many more offences – had it not be
for a senior officers cutting short an interview with
the serial killer at Dewsbury Police station shortly
after his arrest.
He said the purpose of compiling the TIC list was to
eventually challenge Sutcliffe with the crimes, and
to take statements from him admitting his guilt. He
believed that the Ripper was never confronted with the
additional crimes.
The first offence on the TIC list, he said, was the
murder of a bookie at Bingley, in about 1965, when Sutcliffe
was just 18. Among witnesses interviewed by detectives
was Peter Sutcliffe's father, who recently died. He
recalled that the Sutcliffe family lived close to the
bookies.
Another attack happened about 12 months later when a
taxi driver picked up a fare near Leeds University.
They ended up on moors above Oxenhope, near Keighley.
The taxi driver was repeatedly hit over the head with
a hammer – Sutcliffe's favoured killing weapon
– but amazingly survived.
The victim told police his attacker looked like an Arab
with black crinkly hair and a high pitched voice who
was not particularly tall, a description closely resembling
Sutcliffe. Another murder on the list involved the killing
of a young woman in Hemel Hempstead.
The victim, who was never identified, was believed to
have been a prostitute, like several of Sutcliffe's
other victims in later years
Arrested
The five-year reign of Bradford-born Sutcliffe came
to an end in January 1981 when he was arrested for a
traffic offence by police in South Yorkshire.
Sutcliffe blurted out that he knew what the officers
were leading up to – and confessed to being the
Ripper. In May that year, Sutcliffe was jailed for a
minimum of 30 years by Justice Boreham for the murder
of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven others.
The first of the 13 murders for which he was eventually
convicted was the slaying of 28-year-old Wilma McCann.
Sutcliffe killed her on playing fields close to her
home in Scott Hall Avenue, Leeds in October 1975. His
final victim was 20-year-old Leeds University student
Jacqueline Hill who was slain close to Alma Road, Headingley
in November, 1980.
The Old Bailey jury retired to consider its verdict
on May 22 the following year – when Jacqueline
Hill should have been celebrating her 21st birthday.
At the start of his trial in the famous Number One Court
at the Old Bailey, on April 29, 1981, the Bradford lorry
driver calmly admitted killing 13 women and attempting
to murder seven others. He declared he was not guilty
of murder – but guilty of manslaughter on the
grounds of diminished responsibility.
The Judge, Mr Justice Boreham, refused to accept his
pleas and a trial ensued, at the end of which Sutcliffe
was found guilty of the 13 murders and seven attempted
murders.
david.bruce@ypn.co.uk
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