Sutcliffe the serial litigant ... and YOU always pay the bill
PETER SUTCLIFFE has cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years by using the courts and legal aid to challenge his treatment. He has qualified for legal aid because he has no assets. Most of his cases have been thrown out of court because they have been deemed vexatious.
MID-1997: Seeks £20,000 in compensation after he was blinded in one eye by another patient at high-security Broadmoor Hospital, but does not follow up the claim.
DECEMBER 2004: Plans to sue the hospital after he was beaten up by an inmate, receiving a black eye and bruised ribs He later drops the proposed action.
JANUARY 2005: Let out of hospital to visit the spot where his father’s ashes were scattered in the Cumbrian seaside village of Arnside amid fears that he could sue ministers.
2006: He uses £50,000 of taxpayers’ money to fund a Mental Health Review Tribunal bid for freedom, claiming he is no longer dangerous.
MAY 2008: The mass murderer launches a legal challenge to win freedom, claiming the Home Office breached his human rights by failing to fix a tariff for his sentence.
MAR 2010: His appeal against his whole-life tariff, a move that cost taxpayers an estimated £200,000 in legal aid, reaches the High Court. A judge lifts the anonymity order hiding Sutcliffe’s identity, which was granted at an earlier hearing. The killer is unsuccessful and ordered to serve a ‘whole life minimum term’.
AUGUST 2010: Sutcliffe makes a fresh appeal against his whole life tariff, insisting that he may be safe for release less than 30 years after he admitted killing 13 women.
JANUARY 2011: The Court of Appeal rules that Sutcliffe will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
MARCH 2012: He launches a legal battle for a state pension, arguing that he has a right to draw the benefit because he paid his taxes before being jailed in 1 81.