Ripper starts jail in wing with Huntley

THE Yorkshire Ripper was on suicide watch in prison last night after being moved from Broadmoor.

Peter Sutcliffe, 70, had fought to remain at the psychiatric hospital where he enjoyed a cushy lifestyle.

But a tribunal ruled his paranoid schizophrenia has been successfully treated and he could be moved to the maximum-security Frankland prison in County Durham.

His fellow inmates include child killers Ian Huntley and Levi Bellfield, as well as hate preacher Anjem Choudary, also a new arrival.

The transfer took place under conditions of extreme secrecy amid fears Sutcliffe could try to take his own life or be attacked. The serial killer was told at the last moment and only a tiny number of guards and officials were aware of the operation.

He will spend his first weeks in near total lockdown in a specialist wing for the most dangerous offenders.

He had been held at Broadmoor for 32 years. It cost £300,000 a year to keep him there, with a TV in his room and other privileges, compared with £50,000 for a prison place.

He was given 20 life terms in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more between 1975 and 1980. Three years into his sentence he was transferred to Broadmoor after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

His mental health will continue to be assessed and he could be returned to hospital if it deteriorates.

The decision to put him in a Category A prison is said to have left Sutcliffe suicidally depressed.

He will be held in a wing for inmates with dangerous and severe personality disorders, in a stripped-down anti-suicide cell with a camera that records him 24 hours a day.

He will also be made to wear clothes that cannot be torn into strips to make a noose.

The Prison Service said: ‘We do not comment on individuals.’