Fury at Ripper’s f lirty letters to his female fans
THE Yorkshire Ripper has been exploiting his notoriety to write letters to a legion of female admirers.
Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women and tried to kill seven more, has sent hundreds of personal notes from high-security Broadmoor Hospital.
Chillingly, the 69-year- old asked one woman if she had a steady boyfriend and told another: ‘I’m thinking of you 24/7’. He urged a devotee to visit him in his secure unit, telling her: ‘ Don’t worry, I’m very easy to talk to and I will put you at ease. I’m very fond of you. I guess you know that by now.’
The killer even sent a Valentine’s card to an admirer, signing off with the words ‘I love you’.
Sutcliffe also sparked outrage by casting doubt on the innocence of Madeleine McCann’s parents.
He said in one note there was ‘something not quite right’ about the three-year-old’s disappearance during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007. It was a reference to false theories about the actions of mother Kate and father Gerry.
The McCanns hit back at the slurs, saying: ‘ We are not going to comment on the word of a psychopathic serial killer. He knows nothing about the case. We will not dignify his views with any comment.’ As a patient at Broadmoor, which is in Berkshire, Sutcliffe is allowed to write letters.
But Department of Health guidelines state that high-risk patients should have their correspondence vetted for illegal contents or details that could compromise security.
Neil Jackson, whose mother Emily was one of Sutcliffe’s victims, said: ‘I find it disgusting that he’s writing love letters, he shouldn’t be writing to anybody. It’s not right that he has luxuries and is living the way he does after all the suffering he has caused.’
Peter Cuthbertson, of the Centre for Crime Prevention think-tank, said: ‘Sutcliffe has committed a string of the most barbaric crimes and it is disgraceful that he is revelling in his infamy in this way.
‘His creepy admirers can surely find better uses for their time and money than writing him letters and buying him gifts.’
Sutcliffe illustrates the margins of his letters with a series of doodles and ‘text speak’ despite never legally having had access to a mobile phone.
The letters were sent over a tenyear period under the name Peter Coonan – his mother’s maiden name, the Sun reported.
Sutcliffe, who is serving 20 life sentences, has a large number of fans who write to him, speak to him by phone and shower him with gifts, including DVDs, CDs and books.
He has been accused of enjoying a cushy lifestyle in his secure unit.
He was said to be eating chocolate, watching television and listening to music, as well as being privileged to receive visitors four days a week who can stay for up to four hours.
The former trucker, who believed he was on a ‘mission from God’ to kill sex workers between 1975 and 1980, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1984.
He has been attacked at least three times behind bars. The second assault put his right eye out and another inmate then unsuccessfully attempted to do the same for his left.
It costs taxpayers more than £300,000 a year to detain him in Broadmoor, at least five times the cost of a prison cell.
Broadmoor officials last night refused to comment.