Judges reject Sutcliffe plea, and say the interests of justice demand 'nothing less' than a whole life sentence.
The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, will spend the rest of his life behind bars, the court of appeal has ruled.
Sutcliffe originally received 20 life terms after being convicted of the murders of 13 women after his Old Bailey trial. He pleaded guilty to a further seven counts of attempted murder. A minimum term of 30 years was set before he could be considered for parole.
The serial killer challenged last year's ruling by Mr Justice Mitting that he should never be released on the grounds that the high court judge had failed to take into account evidence of his mental disorder at the time of the murders, or hear evidence from the clinical director of Broadmoor hospital.
But the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams today rejected the appeal, arguing that the passage of time did not make his account at his 1981 Old Bailey trial any more likely to be credible now than it was then.
"We are not, of course, suggesting that the man who perpetrated these crimes was, in any ordinary sense of the words, normal or average. The sheer abnormality of his actions themselves suggested some element of mental disorder," said Lord Judge. He added that there was no doubt Mr Justice Mitting took into account the fact that Sutcliffe was disturbed when he committed the murders when he set the "whole life'' sentence last year.
"There is however no reason to conclude that [Sutcliffe's] claim that he genuinely believed that he was acting under divine instructions to fulfill God's will carries any greater conviction now than it did when it was rejected by the jury," said Lord Judge. .
The three judges ruled that in any event the nature of the murders justified nothing less in the interests of justice than a whole life sentence. "An examination of the entire catalogue of the offences as a whole demonstrates that this was criminal conduct at the extreme end of horror.
"Each of the attempted murders, as well as each of the murder offences, taken on its own was a dreadful crime of utmost brutality: taking all the offences together we have been considering an accumulation of criminality of exceptional magnitude which went far beyond the legislative criteria for a whole life order.
Sutcliffe's lawyers have 14 days to apply to the supreme court to see if they can appeal further on a point of general public importance.
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LETTERS AND TAPE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jan/14/yorkshire-ripper-must-die-in-jail
