05/02/05 - My hell at the
hands of the evil Ripper
EXCLUSIVE BY DAVID BRUCE
CHIEF CRIME REPORTER
Leeds Today
A LEEDS taxi driver believed to be the first male victim
of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has today joined the
call for the serial killer to be caged forever. Former
cabbie John Tomey, 65, right, backed the YEP campaign
for an assurance from the Home Secretary that Sutcliffe
would never be released as he recalled the night he was
attacked on a lonely Yorkshire moor - by a passenger he
is convinced was Sutcliffe.
At his home in Leeds, Mr Tomey spoke of the night in March
1967 when he picked up a swarthy-faced passenger in Leeds
city centre. His fare initially asked to be taken to Bradford,
then changed his destination to Shipley - and then decided
he wanted to go to Bingley.
At that point Mr Tomey showed his passenger a "fare
card" showing the cost of journeys to different areas.
They eventually arrived in Keighley when the "fare"
announced he had no money and suggested going to an aunt's
house in Nelson, just over the Yorkshire border.
Mr Tomey said that as he became increasingly concerned,
the passenger suddenly hit him over the head with a weapon,
he believed to be Sutcliffe's trademark hammer. Door "He
must have hit me eight times. My brain exploded from the
inside," he said.
He regained consciousness to realise his passenger was
hammering on his driver's window. "I always kept
my door locked so he couldn't get to me. He then smashed
the taxi sign on the roof, and all my lights. "I
wasn't fit to drive but somehow I started the engine and
managed to drive away."
Even to this day, Mr Tomey cannot remember how he managed
to drive more than three miles before reaching a house
where the occupants called police. He later compiled an
identikit image of his attacker - producing an image that
bore a remarkable resemblance to an identikit picture
of "the Ripper" issued by Ripper Squad detectives
almost 10 years later.
Mr Tomey said that when he later saw photographs of Peter
Sutcliffe he remained convinced he was the man who attacked
him. He added that Sutcliffe would have been in his late
teens at the time he attacked him - which dispelled the
belief that the Ripper attacked only women.
Detectives and psychologists have argued that it was unlikely
Sutcliffe's killing spree began in 1975 - the year when
he killed the first victim for which he was jailed. He
added: "I have suffered hell for almost 38 years.
Sutcliffe should never be let out. Personally, I think
he should have been hung". |
