Yorkshire Ripper (death)

Case background and investigation

Peter Sutcliffe, who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, attacked women across West Yorkshire and north-west England in the second half of the 1970s. According to CBS News, he killed 13 women and tried to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980. The first murder for which he was convicted was that of Wilma McCann in October 1975, according to Radio News Hub's report of his death.

Police arrested Sutcliffe in Sheffield on January 2, 1981, after officers found him in a car with a woman, CBS News reported. He confessed to police but at trial at the Central Criminal Court in London he denied murder. On May 22, 1981 he was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders and received 20 concurrent life sentences, with a recommendation that he serve at least 30 years.

The investigation drew heavy criticism. CBS News described a manhunt of around 2.5 million police hours in which evidence pointing to Sutcliffe was missed. Detectives were also misled by letters and an audio tape sent in 1978 and 1979 by a hoaxer claiming to be the killer, which steered the inquiry toward north-east England, according to Police Professional. The hoaxer, John Humble, was traced by DNA decades later and jailed for eight years in 2006 for perverting the course of justice.

Sutcliffe spent many years at Broadmoor secure hospital before being returned to prison in 2016, when he was sent to HMP Frankland in County Durham. On July 16, 2010, Mr Justice Mitting in the High Court ruled that he should never be released, imposing a whole life order; the published judgment records the conviction date and the court's view that the seriousness of the offences was exceptionally high. The Court of Appeal later rejected his challenge to that order.

In autumn 2020 Sutcliffe contracted Covid-19 and was moved from Frankland to University Hospital of North Durham, where he died on November 13, 2020, aged 74, according to Radio News Hub and CBS News. Press reports at the time said he had declined treatment and had underlying conditions including heart trouble and diabetes. In a statement quoted by Radio News Hub, the Prison Service confirmed that the prisoner, who had changed his surname to Coonan, had died in hospital and that the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman had been informed.