Ripper quizzed on 7 more attacks dating back to 60s
THE Yorkshire Ripper has been questioned over seven more attacks – including one 11 years before his proven killing spree began.
Peter Sutcliffe, 70, has allegedly admitted to cold case detectives he was probably behind at least one extra case in 1969.
But the serial killer, who was convicted of 20 offences, denies being responsible for an assault on a 12-year-old girl five years earlier, saying she was too young.
Officers from West Yorkshire Police visited Sutcliffe in Frankland Prison, County Durham, over two days last week.
The interviews are part of Operation Painthall, which is aimed at clearing up crimes by the Ripper Killing spree: Peter Sutcliffe that may have been missed. Victims are unhappy about the police tactics. Mo Lea, 57, said it looked like a PR move from the force that bungled the original inquiry.
The arts lecturer, who was attacked with a hammer in Leeds while celebrating her birthday in 1980, said police refused to discuss the case with her.
‘This has to do with the police and trying to make them look good,’ she added. ‘I don’t think they will really bring this back to the fore after 35 years,’ she said.
‘The police in Yorkshire have had bad press in recent years any maybe they think this questioning will make them look good.
‘To charge him would acknowledge that they did such a bad job of it in the first place.’
Sutcliffe held the north of England in fear for five years until his capture on January 2, 1981.
The Bradford lorry driver used hammers, screwdrivers and a knife, which was part of a wedding gift from his wife Sonia, to kill and mutilate his victims. The police operation to catch him was one of the most wide-ranging and con- troversial of the last century. Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility and claimed God had told him to carry out the attacks.
He was convicted of the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of seven others and spent 32 years in Broadmoor Hospital.
Last summer he was transferred from the notorious psychiatric hospital to Frankland.
The two-day interview followed a visit last month in which Sutcliffe, whose sight is failing and is in poor health, agreed to detailed interrogation.
West Yorkshire Police are believed to be focusing on seven cold cases dating back to 1964. In the earliest case a girl of 12 survived being attacked twice. ‘The police are taking this seriously – and so is Peter now,’ a source close to Sutcliffe told the Sun on Sunday.
‘They spent hours with him, asking him about a range of crimes.
‘They took in maps in the hope that getting him to look at them may jog his memory. He has admitted he could have been behind one or two other attacks and mentioned one in 1969.
‘But he is denying the 1964 one, saying it had nothing to do with him and he wouldn’t target someone that young. He has said his mission did not start until years after that.’
Police refuse to talk about the inquiry which is examining decades of paperwork, forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony. A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on ongoing investigations.’
‘They spent hours with him’