Ripper will sped the rest of his life in jail..[ 1478 ]

Jailed Ripper will never be freed

 

 

Evening Standard 16.07.10

Peter Sutcliffe will spend the rest of his life behind bars

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, whose notorious murder campaign caused "widespread and permanent harm to the living", will never be released, a judge has ruled.

The serial killer of 13 women must serve a "whole life" tariff, said Mr Justice Mitting, announcing his decision at the High Court in London.
His judgment was welcomed by Richard McCann, whose mother Wilma was one of the victims of Sutcliffe's reign of terror.

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr McCann said that for many years he had feared Sutcliffe might get released, but now felt a "sense of relief" at the decision. He described it as a "small victory for my mum" and the other victims. In his ruling Mr Justice Mitting said: "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."

Now known as Peter Coonan, the former lorry driver, now 64, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981. He received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. Mr Justice Mitting said he had read statements by relatives of six victims: "They are each moving accounts of the great loss and widespread and permanent harm to the living caused by six of his crimes.

"None of them suggest any term other than a whole life term would be regarded by them as appropriate." He said he had no doubt that the "appropriate minimum term is a whole life term". Sutcliffe is being held in Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

It was on July 5 1975, just 11 months after his marriage, that he took a hammer and carried out his first attack on a woman. Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes - although not all of his victims were sex workers - and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.

The primary submission made on behalf of Sutcliffe was that the degree of his responsibility "was lowered by mental disorder or mental disability". The diagnosis of psychiatrists was that he was "suffering from encapsulated paranoid schizophrenia when he committed the crimes". But the judge said: "These propositions were, however, unquestionably rejected by the jury."

A report from Dr Kevin Murray, the psychiatrist who has been in charge of Sutcliffe's care since 2001, revealed that in July 1993 the killer was started on anti-psychotic medicine and "has persevered with it ever since". The judge said: "He has been well-behaved and has posed no threat to other inmates. Jehovah's Witnesses who have befriended him for over 15 years are emphatic that he now shows remorse for his crimes."