04/02/05 - Yorkshire Ripper
linked to 47 unsolved crimes
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe may have committed
a further 47 despicable crimes - including murders and
sex attacks.
A retired detective has revealed that police originally
prepared a list of offences to be taken into consideration
which were never put to Sutcliffe.
The document is now being used as ammunition in the
case to make sure the 13-times killer is never released
from Broadmoor high security hospital.
Sutcliffe has expressed the desire to one day regain
his freedom and to have plastic surgery so that he can
start a new life in America.
But it has emerged that Ripper Squad detectives had
listed 47 other crimes in the hope of solving cases
which date back to when Sutcliffe was a teenager.
Retired detective constable Alan Foster, who helped
compile the list, said the crimes should be reinvestigated
today using modern technology and DNA techniques. Detectives
strongly suspect that lorry driver Sutcliffe, now 58,
was responsible.
"The families of all victims have an absolute
right to know who had killed their loved ones,"
said Mr Foster. "Sutcliffe may have eventually
admitted to many more offences - but senior officers
cut short an interview with him at Dewsbury Police Station
before such things could come out."
The first offence on the list was the murder of a bookmaker
in Bingley in 1965.
Sutcliffe's father John, who died last year, was among
the witnesses interviewed by detectives. The Sutcliffe
family lived nearby at the time.
Another attack happened 12 months later when a taxi
driver picked up a fare near Leeds University and took
a passenger to the moors above Keighley. The driver
was repeatedly hit over the head with a hammer - Sutcliffe's
favoured killing weapon - but survived.
The victim told police his attacker looked like an
Arab Sutcliffe's with black crinkly hair, a high-pitched
voice, and 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 victims.
Mr Foster said: "The reason for compiling the
list was to eventually challenge Sutcliffe with the
crimes, and to take statements from him admitting his
guilt.
"But I do not believe that the Ripper was ever
confronted with them."
Former Det Chief Supt Jim Hobson, who took over the
Ripper inquiry from George Oldfield, has broken a 25-year
silence to insist the killer stays locked up.
"I do not think Sutcliffe should ever be released,
full stop," he said.
Sutcliffe's five-year reign of terror ended in 1981 when
he was jailed for life for 13 murders and seven attempted
murders. His victims included Helen Rytka and Theresa
Sykes in Huddersfield. |
