Did the Ripper jump queue for surgery to save his eyesight?
THE Yorkshire Ripper provoked fury yesterday after receiving surgery to restore his sight at an NHS hospital.
Peter Sutcliffe, 70, was taken from his high security prison to undergo a cataract operation on his right eye at a specialist unit. The mass killer, given 20 life sentences in 1981, is already blind in his left eye after being attacked at Broadmoor Hospital in 1997.
The unclear circumstances of the surgery sparked fears that Sutcliffe may have jumped to the front of the queue.
Although nine out of ten patients at the Sunderland Eye Infirmary receive treatment within 13 weeks, others can wait up to 15 months.
The total cost of security and treatment are likely to have added tens of thousands of pounds to the substantial annual bill of keeping Sutcliffe locked up.
He was finally transferred from Britain’s most notorious psychiatric hospital to HMP Frankland in County Durham last summer.
The killer fought to remain in hospital where he enjoyed a host of privileges, including better food and longer visits.
But a tribunal ruled his paranoid schizophrenia had been treated sufficiently for him to join ordinary inmates, who include child killer Ian Huntley and hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
Sutcliffe was told more than two years ago that he could lose his sight completely after the onset of a cataract linked to his diabetes. He finally underwent surgery in which his eye’s damaged lens was removed and replaced with an artificial one.
The murderer was taken to hospital under a heavy guard and did not stay overnight. According to The Sun, he told a friend afterwards: ‘My sight has really improved. Now I will be able to see the TV, read and write letters.’
Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said he feared Sutcliffe was given special treatment.
‘Somebody who willingly removes themselves from society by breaking the law, leaving families to suffer, should always be at the back of the queue,’ he said. ‘The people who have paid their taxes and lived by the laws must always be put first ahead of a brutal mass murderer.’
A Government source confirmed Sutcliffe had undergone a medical procedure outside of prison, adding: ‘He did not receive any special treatment.’
The Yorkshire Ripper, now known as Peter Coonan, lost the sight in his left eye after a fellow inmate attacked him with a pen ten years ago, which also damaged his right eye. He was attacked again in 2007 by another killer, Patrick Sureda, who stabbed him in the face with a blunt seven-inch knife.