PETER SUTCLIFFE: THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER

late 1970s and early 80s saw the biggest manhunt in British history as cops searched for the Yorkshire Ripper.

That sicko was Peter Sutcliffe – a lorry driver from Bingley, West Yorks, who slaughtered 13 women – all prostitutes apart from a 16-year-old he murdered as she walked across a Leeds park.

For five years, women across Yorkshire feared for their lives as Sutcliffe satisfied his perverted bloodlust. This was a time before CCTV and police computer databases, and Sutcliffe – who lived with his pretty and unsuspecting wife Sonia – stayed one step ahead of cops until he was finally caught by fluke.

His first murder victim, Leeds mum-offour Wilma McCann, 28, was struck twice with a hammer before being stabbed 15 times in the neck, chest and abdomen on October 30, 1975.

Over the next two years, three more street hookers were killed before he got to 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald.

Sutcliffe made his first mistake on October 1, 1977, when he left a £5 note at the Manchester allotments where he killed prostitute Jean Jordan, 20. He went back to get the cash and, when he couldn’t find it, he angrily mutilated her decomposing body with a shard of glass.

Although interviewed about the fiver, he was not investigated further. He would ultimately be contacted, and disregarded, by the bungling Ripper Squad eight more times.

In fairness to the police, their job was made harder in 1978 when the ‘Wearside Jack’ hoaxer tricked them into believing he was the Ripper after he sent three letters and an audio message to detectives, taunting them for failing to catch him.

It was almost three decades later when DNA on an envelope identified ‘Wearside Jack’ as alcoholic oddball John Humble. In 2006, he was jailed for eight years for perverting the course of justice.

In April, 1980, Sutcliffe was arrested for drink-driving. But while awaiting trial on this charge, he killed Marguerite Walls, 47, and his last murder victim, student Jacqueline Hill, 20.

On January 2, 1981, Sutcliffe was stopped with a hooker in his car in Sheffield. Cops arrested him after finding his number plate was false and later found his fingerprints on a hammer at the scene of his arrest.

At his trial, Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of murder, but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming God’s voice had told him to do it.

He was diagnosed as a psychopath and sent to Broadmoor hospital but in 2016 was declared sane and sent to HM Prison Frankland in Durham.