09/03/03 - Move Yorkshire Ripper
to prison says MP
The Yorkshire Ripper is "wicked not mad" and
should be in prison instead of Broadmoor high-security
hospital, a Labour MP claims. Fabian Hamilton, MP for
Leeds North East, has written to Home Secretary David
Blunkett asking him to "re-examine" Peter Sutcliffe's
imprisonment at Broadmoor.
Mr Hamilton said a new book, Wicked Beyond Belief by Michael
Bilton, "Proves conclusively that Sutcliffe worked
hard to fabricate the story that he heard 'voices from
god' instructing him to murder his victims."
In the book, Bilton said there was evidence that Sutcliffe
violently attacked and may have murdered men in the 1960s.
Therefore, his claim at his trial that voices told him
to murder women was completely fabricated. Sutcliffe stood
trial at the Old Bailey in London in May 1981 for the
murders of 13 women.
Hamilton said: "In Broadmoor, it's considerably more
comfortable and less harsh than a prison regime. "Sutcliffe
made his mind up that he wanted to serve his sentence
in hospital and he managed to persuade psychiatrists he
was mad by using certain behaviours."
Mr Hamilton said he had known Mr Bilton for 25 years and
knew him to be "a good researcher and a good journalist".
He planned to meet the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire
Police and had asked for a meeting with Mr Blunkett. |
