Peter Sutcliffe to challenge high court ruling over sentence
Case to be heard at the court of appeal as to whether or not he must spend the rest of his life in prison
Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, will tomorrow challenge a high court ruling that he must spend the rest of his life in jail. His case will be heard at the court of appeal by the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams. In a decision in July, Mr Justice Mitting said the serial killer must serve a "whole life" tariff. The former lorry driver, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981. Sutcliffe, 64, received 20 life sentences in 1981 after being convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder another seven.
In July, Sutcliffe made an application to have a minimum term set on his detention. Despite a judge recommending a 30-year minimum term, this was never formally given and his name was not included on a 2006 Home Office list of 35 murderers serving "whole life" sentences.Mitting said at the time he had read statements by relatives of six of the murdered victims and was in no doubt that they represented the unspoken accounts of others affected by Sutcliffe's crimes. "They are each moving accounts of the great loss and widespread and permanent harm to the living caused by six of his crimes."
He added: "This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years. The only explanation for it, on the jury's verdict, was anger, hatred and obsession. Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term."
Sutcliffe's attacks on women across Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire began in July 1975 after he attacked 36-year-old Anna Rogulskyj with a hammer and slashed her stomach with a knife. She survived after the attack was disturbed by a neighbour.
The serial killer went on to attack or kill 19 other women. Although not all his victims were sex workers, Sutcliffe has said he believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper after mutilating his victims using a hammer, screwdriver and knife.
West Yorkshire police were heavily criticised for a number of failures to apprehend Sutcliffe. Despite being interviewed by the police on several occasions Sutcliffe was disregarded from the investigation, one of the largest carried out. The police were also distracted by John Humble, the "Wearside Jack" hoaxer, who sent letters and a taped message to police claiming to be the Ripper. Sutcliffe was ruled out by police for not matching the hoaxer's profile. They also failed to link Sutcliffe to a traceable £5 note found on one of his victims.
He was finally caught after a routine police check found the car he was travelling in with a prostitute had false number plates.
