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| The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe
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23/01/05 - Ripper speaks out
: Let me go, I'm not mad
By Tom Carlin
The People
YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has sensationally
broken his 24-year silence in an amazing attempt to
walk free.
The monster who murdered 13 women insists he is NOT
mad or dangerous any more.
Sutcliffe, 58, made out his case for release in an
unprecedented statement written in his room at Broadmoor
and approved by his lawyers.
It was blocked by nervous Home Office chiefs after
urgent talks - but today The People can reveal how the
Ripper wrote down how he:
-INSISTS he deserves freedom because he is not being
treated for mental illness and has committed no crime
for 25 years.
-VOWS to wed besotted fiancee Pam Mills in May even
though Broadmoor bosses have banned the marriage.
-THREATENS to take his fight for permission to marry
to the European Court of Human Rights.
-LOOKS forward to living with Pam, 54, "in matrimonial
harmony".
-WANTS to explain how he hopes the authorities will
"look favourably" on his case for release
from Broadmoor where he is detained indefinitely.
A Home Office insider, revealing why the Ripper was
gagged, said: "The mandarins are well aware of
the backlash it would cause if he was released and the
public outcry it would lead to.
"One senior civil servant was even heard to say,
'The only way Sutcliffe will get out will be over my
dead body'."
The astonishing development follows the furore over
Sutcliffe being allowed out of the Berkshire psychiatric
hospital last Monday to visit the Lake District spot
where his father John's ashes were scattered.
Insiders say he began formulating his statement on
Thursday morning after news of his excursion broke.
He wanted the world to know his feelings - even though
he has previously stayed silent about his life inside.
With his legal team helping, the Ripper penned a lengthy,
emotion-filled letter in which he poured out his hopes
for the future.
He desperately wanted to justify his wedding plans
and the day out which angered his victims' families.
Broadmoor bosses demanded to see his scribblings -
and were stunned by what they read. They agreed to show
the letter to the Home Office only if he "watered
down" the contents.
Sutcliffe was furious but accepted the censorship.
All he was allowed to write to the Home Office was:
"The courts convicted me and now the courts will
protect my human rights under Article Eight.
"I am no longer an insane or dangerous person
and I am not receiving treatment for any form of mental
illness and I have not committed any criminal offence
for over 25 years."
The Home Office thought even this was too hot a potato
to be released to the Press and banned him speaking
at all. But The People can reveal the full extent of
what Sutcliffe originally wanted to tell the world.
He wrote: "I hope to be getting married on or
before May 12 2005. I am looking foward to the wedding
day.
"Since my conviction, never before have I took
such a step but I do so to end further speculation into
my life.
"My hope is that my stay at Broadmoor will be
reviewed and that they look favourably on my hopes for
my future.
"And I look forward to the day when my wife and
I are allowed to live as one under the same roof in
matrimonial harmony." Sutcliffe's freedom campaign
triggered a series of emergency meetings by Broadmoor
top brass and senior Home Office officials on Thursday
and Friday.
Top Treasury lawyers were summoned in a bid to pre-empt
any move Sutcliffe makes for his release.
A Home Office insider told The People: "Sutcliffe
feels his Lake District foray has provided a chink in
the Government's case for him to be incarcerated for
the rest of his life. Senior civil servants and bosses
from the mental health unit have reacted with fury at
his audacious attempt for release.
"They have held countless meetings and talks to
prevent Sutcliffe getting his wish. The paper shufflers
have been severely kicked into action and there is a
frantic, even panicked, look on the faces of many officials."
Sutcliffe was smuggled out of Broadmoor's top-security
Dorchester ward and taken on the 540-mile round trip
to Cumbria to pay his respects to his father John, who
died last year.
Five nurses accompanied the Ripper in a bullet-proof
van.
Sutcliffe is frail from diabetes and almost blind after
being attacked by another patient in 1997.
He is so determined to squeeze every concession out
of Broadmoor chiefs that he is already poised to lodge
an official appeal with the Home Office against the
ban on him marrying.
He even quotes Article Eight of the 1998 Human Rights
Act which states that "everyone has a right to
respect for his private and family life. "He is
so confident that he will win he has already set May
for the big day - 24 years after the start of his Old
Bailey trial. He got 20 life sentences.
Our source said: "Sutcliffe has been reading up
on the law and knows it inside out. He is constantly
in touch with his lawyers and is confident there is
nothing the governors at Broadmoor can do legally to
stop him getting hitched. He doesn't care if he has
to take the case to the High Court or to the European
Court of Human Rights. Everyone thinks he is being quite
cocky. He has under-estimated how much he is still despised
by the British people and doesn't realise there would
be a public outcry if he walked free.
"He has been strolling around with a smug look
on his face but there is a queue of people who would
love to knock it off."
Sutcliffe's fiancee Pam, a divorcee gran from Leicester,
has written to him every day for 10 years.
Yesterday she refused to comment on the wedding. Sutcliffe's
first wife Sonia, 54, divorced him in 1994 after 20
years of marriage. She has since remarried.
Last night Broadmoor chiefs were still "frantic
with worry" about Sutcliffe's campaign.
A source said: "They have never had to face these
sort of problems before, especially with such a high-profile
patient. They know the whole country is waiting to see
what Sutcliffe will do."
The Home Office was last night unavailable for comment.
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