Now Ripper is linked to 2 murders in Sweden

Single hair on victim’s body could prove killer’s identity

YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe is being investigated over the murders of two women in Sweden, it was reported yesterday.

The serial killer was named by British police to their foreign counterparts as a possible suspect, according to the Swedish tabloid Kvallsposten.

Detectives are said to have enquired about the murders of a 31-year-old woman found dead in Gothenburg in August 1980, and a 26-year-old woman found dead in Malmo a month later. Both bodies were found on building sites.

An active investigation is said to be under way after it emerged a single hair found on the body of one of the victims has been preserved and could provide hard DNA proof of the killer’s identity.

A ferry passenger list supposedly shows Sutcliffe was likely to have been in Malmo at the time of the second Swedish murder.

He is serving 20 concurrent life sentences for the murder of 13 women in the UK and attempting to murder seven others.

Following West Yorkshire Police’s contact with Swedish authorities, South Sweden’s police commis- sioner Bo Lundqvist told Kvallsposten: ‘They wanted answers … including whether we have the type of murder, whether forensic evidence exists and whether there is anything that can be investigated using new techniques.’

He added: ‘They also wanted to know whether Peter Sutcliffe was named in any investigations.’ Mr Lundqvist said officers in Malmo contacted UK police in January 1981, after Swedish media reported Sutcliffe may have been in the area at the time of the murder.

But Interpol argued Sutcliffe could not have been there – which the agency later found to be incorrect, according to the report. A passenger list allegedly places Sutcliffe on board a ferry between Malmo and Dragor, Denmark, on the days before and after the murder. Mr Lundqvist said it is likely this information never reached British police at the time of their investigation into Sutcliffe.

But after opening a review of unsolved crimes last year, West Yorkshire Police are said to have told Mr Lundqvist that they were aware of a telex from Interpol indicating that Sutcliffe had trav- elled on the Malmo-Dragor ferry. Malmo Police have previously confirmed a hair on the Malmo victim’s body has been preserved.

Mr Lundqvist said he responded to the UK police request several months ago but has not received further information on the case.

‘I think you have to be prepared to go far to seek the truth when there is still such a strong circumstance that it might be Peter Sutcliffe,’ he said. ‘It is his signature, and I am referring to brutality.’

The decision to grant UK authorities access to forensic material will fall to the Swedish justice department. A West Yorkshire Police spokesman last night said no one was available to comment.