THE TRIAL

WEEK ONE


TUESDAY, MAY 5 1981: TRIAL BEGINNINGS, THE VICTIMS

Case: Regina v Peter William Sutcliffe
Place: Number One Court, Central Criminal Court, "Old Bailey", London
Judge: Mr Justice Boreham
Prosecution: Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General
Prosecution: Harry Ognall, QC
Defence: James Chadwin, QC
Defence: Sidney Levine

Opening for the prosecution, Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General, told the jury that by evidence alone, it demonstrated that Peter Sutcliffe carried out a series of calculated, premeditated, and sadistic murders. However, there was also medical evidence that showed that Mr Sutcliffe suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, as all the doctors who had examined him since his arrest were agreed on the diagnosis. Sir Michael: "This is an abnormality of the mind which, in the view of the doctors, substantially impairs his mental responsibility for his acts, namely murder."

The doctors opinions were not binding on the jury. They were based entirely on the version of events as told to them by Mr Sutcliffe. Sir Michael: "The reason for this trial is simple. There is a marked significant difference between the version which Sutcliffe gave to the police and the version he gave to the doctors. You will have to consider whether the doctors might, in fact, have been deceived by this man; whether he sought to pull the wool over their eyes, or whether the doctors are just plain wrong. You will have to decide whether as a clever, callous murderer he has deliberately set out to provide a cock and bull story to avoid conviction of murder."

Mr Sutcliffe told a psychiatrist about his alleged reasons for the killings. Sir Michael: "He said, in short, that he had messages from God to kill prostitutes and that what he was doing was a divine mission."

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Hugo Milne had a series of 11 interviews with Peter Sutcliffe. It was on March 5th, during the eighth interview and two months after his arrest, that Mr Sutcliffe first made reference to his "mission". Mr Sutcliffe had been describing how he had murdered his third victim, Irene Richardson, and concluded with: "It was important to my cause that I had to carry on with the mission."

When encouraged to talk more by Dr Milne, Mr Sutcliffe said: "I know if I was allowed out I would know it was all right. I'm here now but it might only be temporary. If I was out the feeling would come back. It would be wrong to say I wouldn't to it again. It would be different to say that I couldn't. I know it's wrong to kill but if you have got a reason it's justified and it's all right. I have no doubts whatsoever. I wasn't as rational then as now. If there were women around now it wouldn't take long to get these thoughts again. The prostitutes are still there, even more on the streets now, they say. My mission is only partially fulfilled. God gave me the mission to kill. He got me out of trouble. I'm in God's hands. He misled the police. Perhaps God was involved with the tapes."

Dr Milne said in his report: "He was confident that he was called to do it. It was his calling. He had no qualms about it."

Mr Sutcliffe said that he thought that God might have decided that he should be arrested, so that he could rest from the mental torment that went along with the killing. It could be that God had called someone else to continue with the mission. Mr Sutcliffe had also told Dr Milne: "I have never seen God. I have heard him often."

Sir Michael: "But none of that detail was told to the police at all. He told the police that he had urges and hallucinations but of a different kind to what he later described to the doctors." As well, he hadn't told the police straight away about those urges and hallucinations.

It had taken the best part of two days to take down Mr Sutcliffe's statement. Sir Michael: "But that confession is curious, you may think. It is by no means wholly frank. There were twenty murders and attempted murders. He only spoke in his confession of fourteen." He had not included the murder of Marguerite Walls who had been strangled with a rope in Leeds last summer. Mr Sutcliffe claimed to have heard voices in his head say: "Kill, kill, kill," during the attack.

When first arrest, Mr Sutcliffe did not in any sense tell the police: "I have a divine right to do this. I am responding to God's orders." Sir Michael: "What he did say, he told a whole series of lies as to how he had been caught and why he was in the car with a prostitute and why he had weapons in the car and why he had a rope in his pocket and gave a cock-and-bull story about how he came to be there."

Sir Michael said that the discrepancies between what Mr Sutcliffe told the police and what he told the doctors would, to the jury, "cause the greatest anxieties in this case and that they will be the most relevant facts to the issue of whether the medical evidence should be accepted by you or not." Sir Michael said that the doctors would say they were aware and had taken into account these discrepancies in Sutcliffe's story.

However, there were two separate occasion which cast grave doubts about Mr Sutcliffe's story given to the doctors. The first was while he was in Armley Prison Hospital, Leeds. Six days after his arrest, on January 8th, his wife was visiting him. A prison officer, Mr Leach, had been present during the visit. Mr Sutcliffe told his wife he was guilty of all the charges and had given the police the details.

Sir Michael: "He also said that he expected to get 30 years in prison, but - and listen to this - he said that if he could make people believe that he was mad, he would only do ten years in a loony bin."

The second occasion was on April 14th, the same day it was announced that Mr Sutcliffe's trial was transferred to London from Leeds. A hospital prison officer was sitting with him. Sir Michael: "Sutcliffe was insisting that he was normal, and he was highly amused at the doctors considering him disturbed. Was this part of a pattern of what happened on the previous occasion?"

Sir Michael said that the Crown intended to demonstrate that Mr Sutcliffe had 'duped' the doctors and was a 'sadistic killer'. The defence had the burden of proving that Mr Sutcliffe suffered from diminished responsibility. If the defence could not satisfy the jury that Mr Sutcliffe genuinely believed that he had heard the voice of God when he was working at Bingley cemetery, then they must find him guilty of murder on all thirteen counts.

After he had listed all the charges against Mr Sutcliffe, Sir Michael said: "All this finally ended on the night of January 2 this year." On that night South Yorkshire police officers, PC Robert Hydes and Sgt Robert Ring, were on routine motor patrol and were checking office premises in a large deserted area. "This area was regularly used by prostitutes. The police vehicle drove up. They saw a Rover parked without its lights on."

Noticing a man and a woman in the vehicle they went over to check it. The woman was: "a well-known prostitute and the man Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe first said she was a girlfriend, but could not give her name, so that did not go on for very long."

When the officers radioed to check the plates on the Rover, they found they were false and belonged to another vehicle. It was after this discovery that both the man and woman were then taken to the police station in Sheffield.

Sir Michael: "Because of this the largest and most expensive and most protracted manhunt ever mounted by a police force in this country was brought to an end." The investigation had cost more than £4 million and had involved more that one million hours of police work.

Sir Michael then told of the activities of: "the man now seated in the dock, who became known, because of the killings, as the Yorkshire Ripper." Peter Sutcliffe had, over a period of five years, made 20 homicidal attacks on women. Thirteen had died and seven lived. They were between the ages of 16 and 47. Some of the women were prostitutes, some were women of easy virtue, but the attacks from 1979 to 1980 involved six women whose reputations were totally unblemished.

With the exception of two attacks in Manchester, all the attacks had taken place in five West Yorkshire towns or cities: Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, and Keighley. No woman was free from these homicidal attacks. Sir Michael: "His modus operandi was marked by deliberation and brutality."

Mr Sutcliffe modus operandi in the cases involving prostitutes was to get them in his car and drive to a secluded place, sometimes of his choosing, sometimes of theirs. Sir Michael: "On a pretext of having sexual intercourse with them he invited them into the back seat and as they stooped to get in he would attack them from behind with a hammer."

In other cases, Mr Sutcliffe would park his car and lie in wait for a victim, or he would follow his victim on foot. The method of attack soon assumed a "clear badge of identity" to the police trying to catch the killer. The victim suffered multiple depressed fractures of the skull, in most cases they were rendered senseless, if not dead. The victims were also repeatedly stabbed about the trunk. Mr Sutcliffe also displaced or removed their clothing before he stabbed them with a knife or screwdriver, saying that when they were found they would: "look as cheap as they are."

Mr Sutcliffe had often been disturbed during his attacks, but always escaped. Sir Michael: "One might almost say, in happier circumstances, that he led a charmed life."

During the November 1980 attack on Theresa Sykes, age 16, in Huddersfield, he was actually seen attacking her and was chased by a young man. Mr Sutcliffe escaped by hiding in a front garden of a house.

Peter Sutcliffe said that one of his victims, Maureen Long, attacked in Bradford in 1977, passed by him in Bradford city centre approximately two weeks before he was arrested. He recognised her immediately, but she did not recognise him.

In his confession, while most of his victims were prostitutes, Mr Sutcliffe acknowledged that there did come a stage when it no longer mattered to him. He had attacked women of excellent reputation, four of whom died. Sir Michael: "He has given no explanation of importance as to the motive for these killings."

Sir Michael said that Mr Sutcliffe had told of the time, during his late teens, in 1965, when he had been in a motorcycle accident, and had suffered a severe blow to the head on a lamp post, implying that this might in some way account for his later actions. Mr Sutcliffe told the doctors he was: "knocked unconscious for hours." To others, he had said he had been knocked unconscious for half an hour. Sir Michael suggested that: "you may think he was embroidering this story."

Sexual intercourse did not appear to have played any part in Mr Sutcliffe's conduct in regards to his victims. He had asserted that, other that the one exception involving victim Helen Rytka, he had not sought or had sexual relations with any of his victims.

The use of false number plates had led to Mr Sutcliffe's arrest. He had been due to appear in Bradford court charged with a breathalyser offence. In such cases it was usually inevitable that disqualification would take place. He said he had stolen the number plates from a scrapyard in Mirfield, West Yorkshire because his car insurance had expired and in order to tide him over until he lost his license.

Sir Michael: "Of course there may be another motive for this, there was careful checking going on in all the prostitute areas by the police and Sutcliffe had been interviewed a number of occasions. Whatever the cause for the deception it in fact led to his arrest and helped, perhaps, to save the life of Olivia Reivers (the prostitute he was with at the time), and perhaps many more."

Sir Michael said that the police investigation of the murders was bedevilled by letters that were received by the man in charge of the investigation, Mr George Oldfield, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. The letters had been posted in Sunderland. They were written in taunting tones, and it appeared that the author had detailed knowledge of attacks. In June 1979, the police received a tape cassette, also posted from Sunderland, that contained a sarcastic mocking message, and had been made by someone with a northeast accent originating from an area of Sunderland.

Sir Michael: "Most regrettably it became widely accepted by a number of senior officers that this man was in fact the Ripper and that he spoke with a Wearside accent. One of the things which affected the investigating officers, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of people, was that if people interviewed did not speak with a Sunderland accent or if their writing did not compare with that on the letters they tended to be eliminated. The harsh truth is that the author of the letters and tape has nothing to do with this case. That person's wicked behaviour may be responsible for casting a shadow over many innocent people. For my part I cannot condemn too strongly this cruel hoax."

Sir Michael then detailed Peter Sutcliffe's personal background. From a family of six, he left school at age 15 and had a variety of jobs, including labouring, factory work, and gravedigging, before he qualified as a heavy goods vehicle driver. He was married at age 28 to his wife Sonia, age 24 at the time, in August 1974 after having courted her for seven or eight years. She had been his only regular girlfriend. They lived with her parents in Bradford after their marriage until they bought their own house. They didn't have any children.

Sonia Sutcliffe worked as a supply teacher, and also worked as an nursing auxiliary one night a week. Mr Sutcliffe had stated that for many of his attacks it was on a night when his wife was working.

The people who knew Mr Sutcliffe the best, his family and friends, knew him as an unremarkable man who lead an unremarkable life. When Mr Sutcliffe lived with his wife at her parents' house, next door lived two brothers named Barker. One of the Barkers, Ronnie, kept a diary and was able to pinpoint events on certain dates.

On May 28 1977, the Barker brothers were driven to York by Mr Sutcliffe. While there, he disappeared for approximately three quarters of an hour, telling the brothers he had been with a girl. Later, on their way back to Bradford, Sutcliffe drove the car through the Chapeltown area of Leeds, telling the brothers they were: "in Ripper country."

That incident took place exactly a month before the killing in Chapeltown, Leeds, of 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald. Sir Michael: "It is for your consideration that this might well have been a reconnaissance trip. If so this shows a measure of premeditation."

Peter Sutcliffe would sometimes drop the Barkers off at the end of the road where they lived and then would drive off by himself. Most of those evening were when his wife, Sonia, was at work at the hospital.

Mr Sutcliffe was with the Barkers out drinking on the night of Jayne MacDonald's murder, and dropped them off at the end of the road before driving off alone. Within three hours, Jayne MacDonald had been brutally killed in Chapeltown, Leeds.

Once while out with the Barkers, Mr Sutcliffe suddenly stopped the car and left the vehicle after seeing a girl he liked and telling them he was going after her.

Before detailing the attacks and murders, Sir Michael told the jury that they would have to "steel themselves" to look at photographs of the victims.

Peter Sutcliffe's first victim was 39-year-old Anna Rogulskyj. She was attacked as she tried to get into her boyfriend's house. The attack took place in July 1975. She had argued with her boyfriend and spent the evening drinking in pubs and clubs. Mr Sutcliffe had spotted her about 1:30 am.

Sir Michael: "Sutcliffe said that he had seen her twice in the area before and asked her if she was in business and was rebuffed. While trying to get into the house, Sutcliffe hit her from behind with a hammer and admitted that he tried to kill her but was prevented from doing so because he was disturbed by something." Anna Rogulskyj suffered two depressed fractures of the skull and had abrasions on her stomach. She has since made a good recovery from her injuries, suffering no brain damage.

When asked about the killings during an interview on January 5th of this year, Mr Sutcliffe said: "All this really started when I was done out of £10 by a prostitute in Bradford. She went off to get it changed and never came back. This poisoned my mind about prostitutes."

When asked about the Anna Rogulskyj attack, Mr Sutcliffe stated: "Yes, that was me. She had a funny name and I asked her if she fancied it. She said 'Not on your life,' and went on trying to get into the house. When she came back, I tapped her again and she elbowed me. I followed her and hit her with the hammer and she fell down. I intended to kill her but I was disturbed. I can't remember anything else."

During the January 22nd interview, Mr Sutcliffe was asked if the Anna Rogulskyj attack was his first. He replied: "Yes, I'm sure of that. I hit her on the head and I think I intended to kill her. I had this inner complex which I think started back in 1965 when I had a motorbike accident. I ran into a telegraph pole and went into it with my head. Since then I have had severe bouts of morbid depression and hallucinations. My mind goes into a haze and I don't know what was right or wrong, or if I was acting rationally or not."

Sir Michael: "You will notice that he makes no mention of any voice from God, simply hallucinations and depressions."

Mr Sutcliffe later told police that he got two bouts of depression a month: "I used to think I was hearing things. These are the sort of things that have been going on, but other times there would be no pattern to them." He also said he thought his attacks on women were probably linked to these bouts.

Mr Sutcliffe went with his first prostitute in order to "level the score" with Sonia before they were married: "I was working at the water board and I heard that Sonia was seeing an Italian ice-cream man who would pick her up from college and take her out at nights. It depressed and upset me and I didn't want to lose her. By going with a prostitute I thought it would level the score. I thought I would have intercourse with the prostitute, but changed my mind when it got to the stage where we had got to do it."

Sutcliffe had later seen the prostitute, who had cheated him out of £10, and: "She refused to give me it back and I felt humiliated, outraged and embarrassed. I was full of hatred."

Describing the attempted murder in August 1975 of Olive Smelt, a 46-year-old office cleaner living in Boothtown, Halifax, Sir Michael said: "She often went out on Friday night drinking with another woman friend. Sutcliffe probably went to the same public houses that Mrs Smelt visited."

Olive Smelt had been out drinking with friends on August 15th and had been in five different public houses in the town centre of Halifax. She left the Royal Oak in a car with two men who dropped her off 400 yards from her home. She walked down Woodville Road and then turned down a narrow lane. She then realised there was someone walking on her right-hand side. Having exchanged a few words with her, he walked off. Sir Michael: "She walked on down the alleyway and the next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital."

Mrs Smelt's life was saved when a man drove up to the spot with his headlines on, disturbing Mr Sucliffe during his attack on her. While the driver did not see the assailant, he did she Mrs Smelt lying on her front on the pavement with her clothes pulled apart to expose her backside. She was then taken to the hospital. She had suffered two fractures of the skull and had two curious abrasions on the small of her back, one being 12 inches long, and the other four inches long.

Sir Michael then spoke about Trevor Birdsall, aged 32, who had known Peter Sutcliffe since 1966. Sir Michael: "At the back end of last year, in late November, he went to the police and gave them certain information which he had been in possession of for a long time and had done nothing about."

Mr Birdsall told police that in 1971 he was driving his car along Manningham Lane, Bradford, when Mr Sutcliffe told him to stop. Sir Michael: "He got out and walked up St. Paul's Road, a prostitutes area. Five or ten minutes later he came running back, said 'Drive off quickly.'"

Mr Birdsall saw that Mr Sutcliffe had a sock with a stone in it. Mr Sutcliffe said he had "hit a woman" and then proceeded to throw the stone out the window.

Sir Michael: "That was about in 1971. The first count on this indictment is 1975."

(NOTE: The attack took place in 1969, not in 1971 as stated above. This was corrected later on during the trial. All further references have been corrected to 1969).

Sir Michael: "Mrs Smelt was attacked in August 1975. On that very night when the attack on her took place, Sutcliffe went with Mr Birdsall to Halifax and in one of the pubs they visited, the Royal Oak, he pointed out some women and said: 'I bet they are on the game.'"

Mr Birdsall and Mr Sutcliffe were driving out of Halifax towards Bradford later that evening. As they passed through Boothtown, Mr Sutcliffe stopped the car, picked something up from the car, got out and walked off down a street, which was parallel to one where a moment before they had seen a woman.

Sir Michael: "That woman was Olive Smelt. About twenty minutes later, Sutcliffe came back and Mr Birdsall says he was rather quiet and tried to chat a bird up but didn't get anywhere. The next day, Mr Birdsall saw in the paper of the murderous attack on Olive Smelt and where it happened. He didn't do anything." It must have been in Mr Sutcliffe's mind that his friend might have been suspicious about him.

Mr Birdsall again wondered about Mr Sutcliffe when he found out he had been interviewed by the police in 1977 in regards to a £5 note found on one of the murder victims. The police had traced the note to a wages batch which could have been given to Mr Sutcliffe by his employer. Sir Michael: "Mr Birdsall thought again and wondered - but did not do anything. It was not until November (of 1980) that he sent an anonymous letter to the police and then went himself to see them."

When interviewed by the police after his arrest, Mr Sutcliffe confirmed that the information from Mr Birdsall that he had attacked a prostitute in 1969 while out with Mr Birdsall was correct.

Mr Sutcliffe had told police: "I got out of the car and asked her the time and hit her with a sock with a stone in it. I had got depressed. I had trouble with violent headaches. I blame prostitutes."

Mr Sutcliffe claimed that when first interview by the police (in 1969) about the attack, he told them he had hit her with his hand: "I was given a lecture and told the woman would not press charges."

Peter Sutcliffe had been arrested in 1969 in Manningham, Bradford, found carrying a hammer, and was subsequently convicted of going equipped for theft. He was asked this year by the police if he had carried the hammer in order to kill prostitutes. Mr Sutcliffe told them: "I had it in my mind to kill prostitutes. "But I did not tell them what was in my mind when I was arrested because to tell then would have been a far worse charge than to tell them what I told them at the time."

When interviewed about the Olive Smelt attack, Sutcliffe stated: "I saw this woman in a pub and she annoyed me, probably in some minor way. I took her to be a prostitute. I hit her on the head and scratched her buttocks with a piece of hacksaw blade or maybe a knife. My intention was to kill her but I was disturbed by a car coming down the road."

Peter Sutcliffe's first murder victim was Wilma McCann, who was separated from her husband and lived with her four children. Sir Michael: "She drank too much, was noisy and sexually promiscuous - she distributed her favours widely."

On the night of her death, Wilma McCann had gone to a public house and then to a club. She left the club in the early hours of the morning. She had 183 milligrammes of alcohol in her blood. She had been seen by two policemen at around 1:30am while they were on routine patrol. She was picked up by Mr Sutcliffe in his car and her body was found the next morning by a milkman, who at first thought the body was a bundle of rags.

Sir Michael: "Medical evidence says she was first hit on the head then fell to the ground and then repeatedly stabbed." She had been stabbed in the abdomen, chest, and neck. She also had laceration to her scalp which was probably caused by a hammer. Mr Sutcliffe had carried with him in his car a hacksaw blade, a hammer and a knife.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I wanted to pick up a prostitute with the intention of killing her. I realised this one was a prostitute because she asked me if I wanted business. I may have given her the impression that I wanted to have sex, but this was not so. This kind of talk was a preamble which would lead to the true purpose of my killing. I had to put up with all kinds of language and abuse in case she didn't see the point."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I was driving through Leeds at night. I had been having a couple of pints and I saw this woman thumbing a lift. She was wearing white trousers and a jacket. I stopped and asked her how far she was going and she said, 'Not far, thanks for stopping' and jumped in. I was in quite a good mood and just before we set off she asked if I wanted to do business. I didn't know what she meant and asked her to explain and, it seemed to me, a scornful tone came into her voice. She said: 'Bloody hell, do I have to spell it out!' as though it were a challenge. My reaction was to go with her."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I parked near a field and we sat there for a minute. All of a sudden, her tone changed and she said, 'Well, what are we waiting for! Let's get on with it.' Before we started, she said, 'It costs a fiver.' I was a bit surprised. I was expecting to be a bit romantic. I couldn't have intercourse at a moment's notice, I had to be aroused. She said, 'I am going. It's going to take you all fucking day. You are fucking useless.' I felt myself seething with rage. I wanted to hit her. I told her to hang on a minute and not to go off like that. She said, 'Oh you can manage it now, can you!' It sounded as though she was taunting me. I said, 'Can we do it on the grass!' This was my idea to start hitting her."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "She stormed off up the field. I had a hammer in the tool box and I followed her up the field. I had the hammer in my right hand and put my coat on the grass. She sat down on the coat and unfastened her trousers and said, 'Come on, get it over with.' I said, 'Don't worry, I will.' I then hit her with the hammer on the top of the head. She made a lot of noise and kept on making noise so I hit her again. I hit her once or twice and she started making a moaning noise. I felt, 'God what have I done!' I knew I had gone too far."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I sat in the car and could see her arm moving. I was in a numb panic. I half expected her to get up and realised I would be in serious trouble. I felt the best way to get out of the mess was to make sure she couldn't tell anyone. I thought to make sure she was dead I would stab her in places like her lungs and throat. I was in a blind panic when I was stabbing her, just to make sure she would not tell anybody. I was very frightened and I can't remember driving back. I thought I was bound to get caught. I looked over my clothing before I went into the house, then I went straight upstairs to the bathroom, washed my hands and went to bed. I carried on as normal, living with my wife. After that first time I developed and played up a hatred for prostitutes in order to justify within myself a reason why I had attacked and killed Wilma McCann."

When asked by the police why he disarranged her clothes, Mr Sutcliffe replied: "When they find them (the prostitutes) they will look as cheap as they are."

Peter Sutcliffe's next victim was Emily Jackson, a 42-year-old prostitute. She was a married woman whose husband would drive in to Leeds with her, and leave her to carry out her business. Her body was found by a motorist who spotted a pair of legs among some rubble. He first thought it was a tailor's dummy.

There were boot impression found near the body, and these matched a pair of wellingtons found in Mr Sutcliffe's Bradford home.

Mrs Jackson's clothes had been pulled up above her waist. The body had 52 stab wounds in five groups. She had been stabbed in the chest, abdomen, and back. The pathologist who examined the body, Professor David Gee, stated that it was: "impossible to see the individual track of each wound. They had been inflicted with a Phillips-type screwdriver."

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I felt an inner compulsion to kill a prostitute. I saw this woman and she said it would cost me £5. I remember there was an overpowering smell of cheap perfume and this served all the more for me to hate the woman, even though I did not know her. I could see how the first murder had unhinged me completely. I knew from the outset that I didn't want intercourse with her, I just wanted to get rid of her. I couldn't bear even to go through the motions of having sex with her. I wanted to do what I had got in mind as soon as possible."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I pretended the car wouldn't start and told her I would have to look under the bonnet and asked her to help me. She held her light over the bonnet, I took a couple of steps back and hit her over the head with my hammer, I think a couple of times, and she fell down in the road. I made sure she was dead by taking my screwdriver and stabbing her repeatedly. I pulled her bra up and pulled down her pants. It gave me some sort of sexual revenge on her as, on reflection, it had done with Wilma McCann. I stabbed her frenziedly, without thought, all over the body. I was seething with hate for her. I pushed a piece of wood against her vagina to show how disgusting she was."

While leaving the scene, a car stopped nearby, startling Mr Sutcliffe: "It scared me so I put my hammer and screwdriver on the car floor and went straight home to my mother-in-law's house and had a feeling of satisfaction and justification. I didn't have any blood on my clothes so I didn't have to dispose of them."

Sir Michael had commented part-way through reading Mr Sutcliffe's statement: "Can you imagine an account which sets out more carefully the deliberate way in which he manoeuvred her into a position where he could hit her? Everything was so well planned."

Sir Michael said that Mr Sutcliffe's next attack was on Marcella Claxton, an educationally subnormal West Indian prostitute with an IQ of 50, who was aged 20 at the time of the attack. On Saturday, May 8 1976, she had been drinking in the Chapeltown area of Leeds. She survived despite being hit on the head eight times with a hammer. Evidence showed that Mr Sutcliffe had not left the scene straight away, but had returned to where he had left her. Sir Michael: "Mercifully, she had managed to move away and get help."

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "She went behind some trees to urinate and suggested that we 'start the ball rolling on the grass.' I hit her once on the head with the hammer, but just couldn't bring myself to hit her again. For some reason or another, I just let her walk away and I went back to the car."

It was nine months later that Irene Richardson, 28, was killed. Sir Michael said that she was an active prostitute. She was last seen alive at 11:30 pm on Saturday, February 5th, by her landlady.

That night, the evidence showed, Mr Sutcliffe had been trying to pick up a number of women in the area from about 11:35 pm. Having picked up Mrs Richardson in Chapeltown, he took her to almost the same place he had attacked Marcella Claxton, Roundhay Park in Leeds. Irene Richardson died within a hundred yards of where Marcella Claxton had been attacked.

Irene Richardson's body was discovered the next morning by Mr John Bolton who was out jogging in Roundhay Park at around 7:45 am and spotted a body lying on the ground.

The head injuries, three lacerations on the back of the head, had been caused by a flat surface, such as a hammer head. One of the blows to the back of Irene Richardson's head had driven the skull three quarters of an inch into the brain. Other injuries had been caused by a knife. One injury was a 6 3/4 inch long incision in the trunk. Mr Sutcliffe said that the weapon used was a Stanley knife, a knife with a blade that could be changed.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I drove to Leeds to find a prostitute to make it one less. I saw this girl and she got in without a word. I told her that I may not have wanted her but she told me she would give me a good time. I drove her to a park and she wanted to go to the toilet. They were locked so she decided to urinate on the grass. I used the hammer and a Stanley knife on her. As she was crouching down urinating on the grass I hit her on the head at least two or three times. I lifted up her clothes and slashed her abdomen and throat."

Mr Sutcliffe also told police he left the murder scene after he heard voices, but couldn't tell where they came from. He also heard a car being driven away from the entrance to a house. Later he found out that the house was where disc jockey Jimmy Savile lived.

Mr Sutcliffe also told police: "By this time, killing prostitutes had been an obsession with me. I couldn't stop myself. It was some sort of drug."

While being interviewed by the police, Mr Sutcliffe had been asked why it had been so long between murders. Irene Richardson's murder was over a year after his last murder, of Emily Jackson. Mr Sutcliffe replied it was because of his state of mind: "I was having a battle in my mind. My mind was in turmoil whether I should kill people."

Mr Sutcliffe's next victim was 35-year-old prostitute Patricia Atkinson, whose killing was unusual in that it took place in the victim's home in Bradford. She was last seen alive on April 23 1977, and was found the next day, completely covered by bedding. She had four lacerations to the head. As well as being hit with a claw hammer, she had oblong bruises and grazes on the lower part of her abdomen, and puncture marks on the vagina. The pathologist had described these marks as "curious". Mr Sutcliffe had used the claw end of the hammer to scratch her body. The jury was shown the hammer that Mr Sutcliffe had used on Patricia Atkinson.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I heard her using foul language. It was obvious why I picked her up. No decent woman would have been using language like that at the top of her voice. I hung my coat up when I went into the flat because the hammer was in the pocket and I didn't want her to see it. I went up and hit her on the back of the head. She fell off the bed onto the floor. I saw lots of blood on the bedroom floor. I hit her again. I put her back on the bed by picking her up under the arms and hoisting her up. I pulled her clothes up and hit her several times more on her body with the hammer. I saw it marking her body. She made horrible gurgling noises when I hit her. She was still making gurgling noises when I left, but I knew she would not be in any state to tell anyone."

The 1977 murder of Jayne MacDonald was, Sir Michael said: "typically tragic." Aged 16, she was living with her parents and younger sister in Scott Hall Road, Leeds, and was completely respectable.

On June 25, at a public house in Leeds city centre, she met, by chance, a young man named Mark Jones. They stayed together until approximately 1:30 am when they parted in Beckett Street, near St James' Hospital. He had said his sister would drive her home, but: "she was quite prepared to walk home on her own." Her body was found by two small children at 9:45 am the next morning in an adventure playground.

Sir Michael: "Doctors formed the view she had been hit on the head once and fallen, hit once more where she lay, dragged to where she was found and there stabbed on the front of the body and then turned over and stabbed repeatedly in the back. Unfortunately she did not die until after some of the stab wounds had been inflicted."

She had been stabbed under the right shoulder blade and in the chest. In the front trunk area of Jayne MacDonald was a large gaping wound. In it was an embedded broken bottle with the screw lid still attached. It was not known whether it had been a deliberate act by the killer, or whether the broken bottle had become embedded in the body while it was being dragged along. Mr Sutcliffe had denied responsibility for the broken bottle.

The pathologist had the view that Miss MacDonald had been stabbed as many as 20 times. As well, the killer had wiped his knife clean on the back of her body.

Mr Sutcliffe said: "This next one I still feel terrible about. I read recently about her father dying of a broken heart and it brought it all back to me. I realised what a monster I was. I thought she was a prostitute. I felt like something inhuman and I realised it was the Devil turning me."

Mr Sutcliffe continued: "I were quite certain she were a prostitute, absolutely positive. She were walking along in the red-light area, for one thing, and then I saw her stop and chat to a couple of girls on a street corner. I felt sure she were one of them. I walked behind her, following her a short distance. She never looked round. I hit her on the back of the head and she fell down. I pulled her, face down, into the corner of a yard. Her shoes made a horrible scraping noise."

Maureen Long, 42, separated and living with another man in Bradford, was attacked two weeks later. While she had convictions, none were in relation to prostitution. Apparently she still had maintained some relation with her husband, as she met him in Bradford on Saturday, July 9 1977, and had a few drinks with him.

A factory guard in Bowling Hall Lane, Bradford, saw a car being driven at speed out of Mount Street at approximately 3:15 am. The vehicle was a white Ford Corsair and as a result the police checked out over 5,000 cars of similar description that were registered in West Yorkshire. Maureen Long was found when some people heard shouts for help.

Sir Michael: "She had three fractured ribs and stab wounds all over her body." Taken to the hospital, she was: "successfully treated and discharged." However, she has still not recovered and continues to receive out-patient treatment and has fits.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "She asked me if I fancied her. I told her I did. I had my hammer ready as she got out of the car. I also had a knife. I struck her on the head with the hammer while she was crouching, urinating. I saw a light on in a caravan, but it didn't stop me. The next day I heard my victim was still alive. I got a nasty shock. I thought it was the end of the line there and then. I thought she would be able to identify me."

Sir Michael: "There he is, from the moment of picking her up until all that happened, holding himself back, restraining himself, waiting for the right moment when she put herself in a position where he could use the hammer from behind."

The next murder victim was Manchester prostitute Jean Jordan, which, Sir Michael said, was: "a particularly disturbing story because she was not reported missing, so no search was mounted for her." After Peter Sutcliffe had killed her, he returned to the scene of the murder nine days later and attacked the body again. There were eleven wounds in the top of her head and six fractures to the skull. There were 18 further wounds to the stomach and chest, and 10 wounds between the hip and lower rib cage. There had also been an attempt to severe her head from her body.

Her decomposing body was found the tenth day after her murder by an allotment-holder who had gone to his patch. An allotment holder later found her green handbag which contained a new £5 note.

The £5 note was the 'key'. Sir Michael: "This was the reason Sutcliffe went back to the body several days after he killed her. That £5 note was traced to the Midland Bank at Shipley, West Yorkshire. The police are to be congratulated on their most careful endeavours made to try to trace where this £5 note had gone. In fact Sutcliffe was one of those interviewed, and although he agreed he had been paid, he said this note was not one he had been given. Some 6,000 people were interviewed, and any one of them could have had it, but all 6,000 denied it. That inquiry took something over 27,000 hours of police time. A most important lead if you could have proved to whom it went."

Mr Sutcliffe told police that Jean Jordan had changed her mind about getting into another car, and instead opted for his car: "I supposed this was the biggest mistake she ever made. She told me she was going to go with the other man until she saw me."

After they drove to some allotments, he attacked her: "until the moaning stopped." Since there were a number of cars about, he drove off.

During the October 9th return visit, Mr Sutcliffe tried to cut Jean Jordan's head off and leave it somewhere else: "To make a big mystery of it. I were very frustrated not finding my £5 note and thinking my time was up. I remember I kicked her a few times. I was frustrated, and I thought I had been there long enough so I got back home and went to bed. I was surprised I did not have much blood on my clothes. I put my trousers into the garage to dispose of later. I later burned my trousers along with some garden rubbish."

Mr Sutcliffe also told police: "I read about the note being traced to a Shipley bank, but by some miracle I escaped detection."

Before he was arrested in January, Peter Sutcliffe had been interviewed nine times by the police. Sir Michael: "But every time he was interviewed about his car being spotted in the red light areas he gave explanations. He said that he had been in the Leeds and Bradford areas because he lived and worked in the area and had to pass through."

Marilyn Moore, 25, and a prostitute for six years, was Mr Sutcliffe's next victim. It was on December 14 1977 that she agreed to go with a man in his car. He said to her: "Let's do it in the back." While she was walking round she felt three blows from behind and fell screaming to the ground. Mr Sutcliffe said that he had slipped in the mud as he hit her with the hammer. With her screams, he was worried about some people nearby, so he drove off: "with a lot of wheel spin."

Her screams had been heard by someone nearby and she was then taken to the hospital. She was suffering from seven to eight laceration wounds between one and four inches long on the side of the head and a 4 inch depressed fracture of the skull. After being operated on to release pressure on the brain, she told police her attacker had a trim neat beard with a "Jason King" type moustache. Sir Michael: "Unfortunately, despite tremendous inquiries Sutcliffe was not discovered."

Mr Sutcliffe's next victim, Yvonne Pearson, 22, was last seen alive on January 21 1978, and her body was found on March 26 1978 on waste land, covered by an old settee, and with a comb between her thighs. She had been hit on the head with a walling hammer which Mr Sutcliffe would later draw on a sheet of paper for the police while in custody. Yvonne Pearson's head had been smashed into seventeen fragments and Mr Sutcliffe had also stuffed the filling from the decaying settee down her throat.

Yvonne Pearson had tapped on his window as he drove past. Mr Sutcliffe told police: "On reflection, it was a very fateful moment for her. This was the one time when I was genuinely going home, but even so I still had my hammer under my seat."

After hitting her over the head with a walling hammer, a car parked beside his, so he grabbed handfuls of horsehair from an old settee lying nearby: "To keep her quiet" (I) "stuffed it into her mouth and down her throat" (and) "kept holding her nose so the she couldn't scream out. I let go after a while to see if she was still making a noise but she started again so I took hold of her nose again until the car drove away. It seemed like hours."

Mr Sutcliffe also said: "I talked to her after and apologised for what I had done because she was dead. I was very distraught and I was in tears when I left."

Helen Rytka, aged 18, was killed on Tuesday, January 31 1978, and had lived a short and sad life. Most of her life was spent in the care of the local authority and with foster parents. She had lived with her twin sister, Rita, and one of her brothers in a bedsitter in Bradford. Later, like her sister, she worked as a prostitute, and had only worked for a few days as a prostitute in Huddersfield before she died.

Her sister Rita reported her missing to the police after she had vanished. Sir Michael: "Being a prostitute, this immediately caused a wide search." Her body was found by the police the following Friday, crushed into a small space in an old timber yard. A piece of corrugated abestos had been thrown on top of her body. She had sustained severe head injuries and stab wounds in the chest.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "She undid my trousers and seemed prepared to start sexual intercourse right away in the front of the car. It was very awkward for me to find a way to get her out of the car. For about five minutes I was trying to decide which method to use to kill her. She was beginning to arouse me sexually. I got out of the car with the excuse that I needed to urinate and managed to persuade her to get out of the car so that we could have sex in the back. As she was getting in I realised that this was my chance but the hammer caught on the edge of the car door frame and only gave her a light tap. She said, 'There is no need for that, you don't even have to pay.' I expected her to immediately shout for help. She was obviously scared and said, 'What was that?' I said, 'Just a small sample of one of these,' and hit her on the head hard. She just crumbled making a loud moaning noise."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) I realised that what I had done was in full view of two taxi drivers who had appeared and were talking nearby. I dragged her by the hair to the end of the woodyard. She stopped moaning but was not dead. Her eyes were open and she held up her hands to ward off blows. I jumped on top of her and covered her mouth with my hand. It seemed like an eternity and she was still struggling. I told her that if she kept quiet, she would be all right. As she had got me aroused a moment previous, I had no alternative but to go ahead with the act of sex as the only means of keeping her quiet. It didn't take long. She kept staring at me. She just lay there limp and didn't put much into it."

After the taxi drivers left, Mr Sutcliffe retrieved his hammer and, as Helen Rytka staggered to her feet and towards his car: "This was when I hit her heavy blows to the back of the head. I dragged her to the front of the car and threw her belongings over the wall. She was obviously still alive. I took a knife from the car and stabbed her several times through the heart and lungs. I think it was a kitchen knife which I believe the police later retrieved from my home."

The next murder was of Vera Millward in Manchester. At about 10:00 pm on May 16 1978, she had gone out for cigarettes and had not returned home. She was reported as missing. The next day, some workmen saw her body after they had driven into a compound at the back of Manchester Royal Infirmary. Mrs Millward was found with her coat covering her from her knees to her neck. Blood and brain tissue placement indicated a struggle between the attacker and the victim during the attack. She had been stuck with a hammer three times and then stabbed. Her stomach had been sliced open.

Sir Michael said the last six of the Ripper's victims are significant for several reasons. First, none of them were prostitutes, all were absolutely respectable. Sir Michael: "Second, the modus operandi, the method of operating, is not going to work with respectable women. You can't pick them up and it is rather difficult to drive them to a quiet spot and it is unlikely if you succeeded in that that you could get them into the back of the car. These six have an entirely different pattern. They were all respectable. None were in red light areas."

Josephine Whitaker was a 19-year-old building society clerk living in Halifax, and who was perfectly respectable: "and Sutcliffe knew her to be respectable." On the night of her murder she had gone to visit her grandparents who lived about a mile away from her home in Ivy Street.

Sir Michael: "She left her grandparents at about 11:40 P.M. and a man walking his dog about fifteen minutes later saw a man and a young woman walking side by side towards Saville Park. This was Josephine Whitaker and Sutcliffe. Shortly afterwards another man was walking by the park and he heard an unusual noise, 'the type of noise that makes your hair stand on end.'"

A frenzied stabbing attack was carried out on Josephine Whitaker. Mr Sutcliffe used a specially-adapted Phillips screwdriver, which he later told police he had discarded down a motorway embankment near the M1. Detectives later retrieved the rusty long screwdriver, which had been sharpened before the attack. Sir Michael: "It was done in a way to make it what you may think is one of the most fiendish weapons you have ever seen."

The screwdriver, which was passed around to members of the jury, had also been used in the Barbara Leach murder. Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I used it on Josephine Whitaker and Barbara Leach. It was a giant Phillips screwdriver which was badly worn and had been converted into a bradawl."

Sir Michael: "Josephine's skull was fractured from ear to ear. She had been stabbed twenty-one times in the trunk, six times in the right leg. Her vagina had been stabbed three times in the awful way of using the same entry each time."

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "The mood was in me. No woman was safe while I was in this state of mind. I arrived at Savile Park without having any particular notion. I saw the girl wearing a three-quarter length skirt and jacket. I caught up with her after a couple of minutes. I realised then that she was not a prostitute but I did not bother - I just wanted to kill a woman. I asked her if she had far to go and she said she was walking home from her grandmother's. We were approaching an open grass area and she said she normally took a short cut across the fields. 'You don't know who you can trust these days,' I said to her. And there was I, walking along with my hammer and screwdriver in my pocket, ready to do the inevitable."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) We started to walk across the fields and about 30 to 40 yards from the main road I asked the time and she told me (by looking at a church clock). I said to her, 'You must have good eyesight,' and I lagged behind, pretending to look at a church clock nearby. I took my hammer out of my pocket and hit her on the back of the head twice. She gave a loud moaning sound and to my horror I saw a figure walking along the road. I dragged her further into the field and at a safe distance I stopped. I heard voices from somewhere behind me and saw at least two figures walking along a path towards the field. She was still moaning loudly. First I pulled some of her clothing off and then I turned her over and stabbed her numerous times in the chest and stomach with the screwdriver. I was in a frenzy."

Sir Michael said that Barbara Leach, a student who was an undergraduate studying at Bradford University, was Sutcliffe's next victim. She was a totally respectable girl. She had been out drinking with friends at a party at a Bradford pub on September 1 1979. When she left the pub at approximately 2:00 am, she decided to go for a walk. The man who she was with did not want to go walking in the rain, be said that he would wait for her at their student accommodation at Bradford University.

Sir Michael: "The next day, when she did not return, it was beginning to assume a sinister pattern and the police came out in force with tracker dogs." Her body was found in a recess used for enclosing dustbins and had been covered by carpets which were held down with bricks.

Sir Michael: "Barbara had a large laceration on the back of her head and seven stab wounds in her trunk, three of them round her umbilicus. The knife was reintroduced again and again into the chest wound. She had numerous bruises and abrasions and had been struck on the head with a hammer and stabbed with a three-sided instrument."

Mr Sutcliffe then hid her body, the action of a man: "determined to delay the discovery of his victim." Her body was found squashed into a rubbish carrier in a walled dustbin recess and had been concealed by the carpets.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "It (the Whitaker murder) was forty-six weeks after the last one (the Millward murder). I was never urged to do it again until then. I killed Barbara Leach. I took her to the back of the house before I stabbed her."

Sir Michael said that: "another significant departure from the pattern," was the murder of Miss Marguerite Walls, a totally respectable spinster of 47, who was employed as an executive officer at the Department of Education and Science at Pudsey.

Sir Michael: "You find her a complete departure from the way he had done the last few. There was no hammer or anything of that sort. What we do find is that" - and he held up a length of cord, which had been found in Sutcliffe's pocket when he was arrested.

Miss Walls worked late on August 20 1980. Sir Michael: "It looks on the evidence as if she probably stayed until about 10.45 p.m. doing her work."

Having made up his mind to kill, apparently, a prostitute, Mr Sutcliffe was driving in his car on his way to Leeds when he passed by Miss Walls, who was on her way home to Farsley. Sir Michael: "For what possible reason he could have thought this lady was a prostitute remains a mystery."

The following morning, a couple saw a couple saw a new pair of lady's shoes near a driveway to a house. A skirt, shopping bag and cheque book were found near a rockery. After the police had been sent for, Miss Walls's body was found beneath a pile of grass cuttings near a garage at the house. Her body was was virtually naked.

Bloodstains found by the gateway suggested that Miss Walls had been attacked there as she was walking past it. Sir Michael: "She was then dragged up the driveway, across the rockery, and into the wooded area to the left of the drive. There she was murdered by strangulation. She was stripped completely naked, apart from her tights, and then moved to the position by the garage."

At first, Mr Sutcliffe would not take responsibilty for the murder, but eventually he admitted to it in some detail. He told the police he had been on his way to Leeds with the view of killing a prostitute. He had seen Miss Walls walking towards him from a distance of about 60 yards. Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I was already in some kind of rage and it was just unfortunate for her she was there at the time." He then parked the car and caught up to her over a distance of about 400 yards. When he was striking her on the head, he said: "There seemed to be a voice inside my head saying: Kill, kill, kill," Mr Sutcliffe also told police that he had shouted: "You filthy prostitute," while striking her.

Mr Sutcliffe had said that he realised: "I couldn't do anything to stop myself. I were suffering inner torment and just wanted to get rid of all the prostitutes."

When asked why he had not told the police about the killing of Marguerite Walls at an earlier interview, he replied that when initially questioned he knew he was in deep water through his normal method of killing and that this could open new lines of inquiries on other murders that he had not committed.

When asked why he changed his method of killing, Sutcliffe replied: "Because the Press and the media had attached a stigma to me. I had been known for some time as the Yorkshire Ripper. I didn't like it. It wasn't me. It didn't ring true."

Mr Sutcliffe also told police: "I don't like the method of strangulation. It takes them even longer to die."

Mr Sutcliffe next victim was Dr Upadhya Bandara, a doctor of medicine from Singapore who was attending a course at the Nuffield Centre in Leeds. While walking home, she heard footsteps from behind her and moved to the right to let the person pass. The next thing she knew was that, from behind her, a bearded man had put a rope around her neck. She lost consciousness while she tried to prise the rope loose with her fingers. After that, she next remembered seeing a police officer standing over top of her. She had been found lying on the ground.

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "Yes, I used the rope on that girl. She was walking slowly like a prostitute and I hit her on the head with a hammer. I didn't have any tools with me to finish her off so I used the rope. I dragged her down the road and her shoes were making a scraping noise. I apologised to her and took her shoes off and put them over a wall with her hand bag.''

The next victim was 16-year-old Theresa Sykes, who was attacked on bonfire night, November 5th, last year, in Huddersfield. She had gone out to buy cigarettes and was only 30 yards from her home when she was attacked by Peter Sutcliffe, who emerged from the shadows and attacked her from behind. She tried to grab the weapon he was hitting her with, and later said it felt like metal.

Theresa Sykes' boyfriend heard her screams and ran out to help her. He was a physical fitness fanatic and gave chase to the assailant. Sir Michael: "But unfortunately he was not as fast as his quarry. Although he must have run as fast as he could, Sutcliffe was faster. This man with his mission, or the frenzy or the panic which he has described, was quick enough to realise that someone was running after him, so he popped into a nearby garden until the boyfriend went back to Theresa. It was as near as Sutcliffe ever came to being caught red-handed, but unfortunately he escaped and was able to attack and kill again."

During his interview, Mr Sutcliffe said, about the attack on Theresa Sykes, that he hit her a couple of times and knocked her down. He had run off into the garden after she had started shouting: "I attacked her because she was the first person I saw."

Sir Michael: "Remember his words before - 'I hate prostitutes, I cannot stand them.'"

Mr Sutcliffe had stated he intended to kill Theresa Sykes. When asked why, he replied: "At first, it did not take me any time to decide women were prostitutes. I think something clicked because she had on a straight skirt with a slit in it. She crossed the road in front of me."

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow. Sir Michael said he would then deal with the final murder charge.


WEDNESDAY, MAY 6 1981: LAST VICTIM, MILNE REPORT

Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General, for the prosecution, began the day by detailing the final indictment against Peter Sutcliffe, the murder of 20-year-old Leeds University student Jacqueline Hill.

Miss Hill was living at the Lupton Flats Hall of Residence in Alma Road, Headingley, Leeds. She was a totally respectable girl, like the five preceeding victims. She had become involved with social work in about May of last year. Each month she went to a voluntary probation officers meeting in the Leeds city centre. On the evening of November 17 1980 she had attended such a meeting which finished shortly after 9:00 pm. After leaving the building where the meeting was held, she caught a bus back to her residence. She left the bus at the Arndale Centre, near Alma Road, and was not seen alive again.

At around 9:30 pm, witnesses saw a dark-coloured car parked on the left-hand side of Alma Road. It certainly was the defendant's car. Later that night, at around 10:00 pm, a student found a handbag which was Miss Hill's. Sir Michael held up a cream Raffia bag. The student had found it just beyond the entrance to some waste land. After taking the bag into the hall of residence, he noticed that there appeared to be blood spots on it. The police where called after he had discussed his find with other students. They police went to where the bag was found and searched a large derelict house that was nearby. However, their search did not discover Miss Hill's spectacles or a mitten, those items would be found the next morning. As well, they did not discover her body.

Sir Michael: "It was a filthy night, very windy and raining and probably difficult for these things to be seen. Although they may be open to criticism, nothing turns on it because by the time they got there the girl was clearly dead."

The next morning, the manager of a shop in Arndale Centre, Mr David Court, was walking along a ramp leading to a car park behind the centre when he looked over a wall and saw a body. Sir Michael: "The police arrive and this is what they found..." Sir Michael then showed the jury photographs of Miss Hill's body. Her body was partially covered by her coat, with her bra pulled over her head and her jeans and pants pulled down. There was obviously a head injury and a severe wound in the region of the left breast. The post-mortem examination found five lacerations to the top and back of the head. There was also a stab wound to the right eye, penetrating one inch and a half. Sir Michael: "The pathologist took the view that the girl did not die at once."

Mr Sutcliffe told police: "The last one I did was Jacqueline Hill at Headingley. I sat in the car eating some Kentucky Fried Chicken, then I saw Miss Hill. I decided she was a likely victim. I drove just past her and parked up and waited for her to pass. I got out of the car and followed about three yards behind her. As she drew level with an opening I took the hammer out of my pocket and struck her on the head. By this time I was in a world of my own, out of touch with reality."

(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I dragged her on to some waste ground. A car appeared and I threw myself to the ground, but the car passed by. I can't imagine why I was not seen. She was moving about, so I hit her again. Then I dragged her further into the waste ground as a girl was passing by. I pulled most of her clothes off. I had a screwdriver with a yellow handle and I stabbed her in the lungs. Her eyes were open and she seemed to be looking at me with an accusing stare. This shook me up a bit so I jabbed a screwdriver into her eye."

On January 2nd of this year, Mr Sutcliffe picked up Sheffield prostitute Olivia Reivers in his Rover car, only minutes before his arrest. He had paid her £10 but had not wanted sex. Miss Reivers told police that Mr Sutlcliffe want to talk to her first. He said he and his wife had had an argument: "something about not being able to go with her." Miss Reivers understood this as meaning that the couple were having sexual problems.

When Mr Sutcliffe was questioned at the scene by the police, he claimed that Miss Reiver was his girlfriend, but could not think of her name.

Sir Michael said that inside the glove compartment of Mr Sutcliffe's car the police found three screwdrivers. Mr Sutcliffe told police he had taken the false number plates and put them on his car because he was due to go to court on a breathalyser charge and had not wanted his car spotted going through the centre of Sheffield. Mr Sutcliffe had said that despite have rows with his wife, he was not having sex problems at home. He told police: "We forget about the rows when we go to bed."

When Mr Sutcliffe was asked where he was on November 17th, the day Jacqueline Hill was murdered, he replied that he believed he was at home with his wife. The officer then said that his wife would be interviewed the following morning. Mr Sutcliffe appealed to them not to tell his wife about him being with a prostitute.

The officer told him: "You got yourself into this. As far as I'm concerned I think you are a regular punter."

Mr Sutcliffe had replied: "I am not. I've never been with another woman."

The officer told him: "Your car has been seen in the red light districts of Leeds and Manchester and last night you were caught in a car with a prostitute in Sheffield and you paid her £10. I don't believe these are coincidences."

Mr Sutcliffe then said: "It is true. I am not a punter."

Later that same evening, one of the officers who had arrested Mr Sutcliffe in Melbourne Avenue, Sheffield, went back to the arrest site and found a hammer and knife. Sir Michael said that the hammer had been used to kill Jacqueline Hill. Other officers then went to where the discovery had been made. Found at the police station among some of Mr Sutcliffe's belongings was a piece of cord. It had been used in the attempted murder of Dr Upadhya Bandara. Sir Michael: "That was apparently in his pocket."

Then officers went to Mr Sutcliffe's home where they found a yellow-handled screwdriver and a hacksaw in his garage. They went back to Dewsbury and Mr Sutcliffe was interviewed by Detective Inspector John Boyle.

Sir Michael then detailed the events leading up to Mr Sutcliffe's confession. Mr Boyle had said: "I believe you went to Sheffield on Friday night with the sole purpose of picking up a prostitute."

Mr Sutcliffe said: "That is not true."

Mr Boyle said: "I believe you put the false number plates on to conceal the identity of the vehicle in the red-light district."

Mr Sutcliffe said: "That is not true. To be honest with you, I've been so depressed that I put them on because I was thinking of committing a crime with the car."

Mr Boyle then asked: "Why did you leave your car and go to the side of that house?"

Mr Sutcliffe replied: "To urinate."

Mr Boyle said: "I think you went for another purpose."

Sir Michael said there was no response from Sutcliffe. Mr Boyle then said: "Do you understand what I am saying? I think you are in serious trouble."

Mr Sutcliffe said: "I think you have been leading up to it."

Mr Boyle asked: "Leading up to what?"

Mr Sutcliffe replied: "The Yorkshire Ripper."

Mr Boyle then asked: "What about the Yorkshire Ripper?"

Mr Sutcliffe stated: 'Well, it's me. I'm glad it is all over. I would have killed that girl in Sheffield if I hadn't been caught. But I want to tell my wife myself. It is her I'm thinking about - and my family. I am not bothered about myself."

Mr Boyle then asked: "Tell me, if you are the so-called Yorkshire Ripper, how many women have you killed?"

Sir Michael said Mr Sutcliffe replied, untruthfully: "Eleven."

When asked whether he was the author of the letters and tape, he replied: "No, I am not." He also stated: "While that was going on, I felt safe. I am not a Geordie. I was born in Shipley."

When asked how the murders started, Mr Sutcliffe replied: "With Wilma McCann." Sir Michael said that this was not, in fact, true. Mr Sutcliffe continued: "I did not mean to kill her. She was bottling me. After that it grew and grew until I became a beast."

Mr Sutcliffe said that Jacqueline Hill in Leeds was his last murder victim, and that he stabbed her in the eye, because her eyes were open and appeared to he staring at him accusingly.

When asked whether he knew the names of his victims, Mr Sutcliffe said: "They are all in my brain reminding me of the beast I am." Mr Sutcliffe then admitted he had killed 12, not 11 women. He continued: "Just thinking about them all reminds me of what a monster I have become. I know I would have gone on. Now I have been caught, I just want to unburden myself."

Sir Michael gave the jury copies of the voluntary statement Mr Sutcliffe had made. It had taken 15 hours and 45 minutes to take down. His statement was "sadly lacking in one way". He had not mentioned five counts of attempted murder or the strangulation of Marguerite Walls. He said that he had not admitted the Walls murder as he thought he might: "get lumbered with other stranglers."

Mr Sutcliffe had taken police to the Mirfield scrapyard where he had stolen the number plates. He also took police to the motor service area where he had thrown one of his weapon. "Very smartly after intensive investigation" police had traced a groundsman who had found another of Sutcliffe's weapons.

On January 8th of this year, police sergeant Robert Ring, who had arrested Mr Sutcliffe and had found the hammer and knife in Sheffield, remembered that Mr Sutcliffe had visited the toilet when at the police station. Sir Michael: "It then clicked in his mind and went to the toilet and found a wooden-handled knife in the cistern."

During a series of interviews with a leading psychiatrist (Dr Hugo Milne), Mr Sutcliffe said that he actions stemmed for a divine mission from God to kill prostitutes. Sir Michael pointed out that it was not until the eighth interview with the doctor, and two months after his arrest, that Mr Sutcliffe revealed his divine mission.

Sir Michael: "If it was a compelling reason for this man's murderous attacks of five-and-a-half years, that he was acting under the will and control of God, which started with a vision and which became a mission, ask yourselves this: 'Why did it take him so long to tell the doctors?'"

The jury were supplied with a 35-page report by Dr Hugo Milne, a consultant psychiatrist, who had 11 interviews with Mr Sutcliffe while he was in Armley Jail, Leeds. It referred to "his distorted thinking as a result of his long-standing schizophrenic illness." Prior to allowing Harry Ognall, QC, for the prosecution, to read the report, Mr Justice Boreham had halted the proceedings to inquire whether it was correct for the prosecution to present the report, as it really formed part of the defence case. Mr Justice Boreham: "I'm a little troubled about it being done at this stage." He allowed the report to be read after counsel for both sides said that they felt it was the most convenient time to present the report.

Dr Milne's report mentioned that there was no psychiatric history involving any of Mr Sutcliffe's five brothers and sisters. The report said: "The mother became involved with a policeman and as a result the happy marriage was destroyed and the father became unfaithful with the woman with whom he is now living."

The report said the death of his mother, on November 8 1978, had greatly distressed Mr Sutcliffe: "It is also apparent that he was very much fonder of his mother than his father and since his arrest the accused has had difficulty with family relationships on the basis that his wife had objected to the Sutcliffe family visiting him because they have been in contact with the press on frequent occasions." His wife, Sonia, was extremely critical of her in-laws, and he had found it difficult to accede or not to her request not to see his family.

Dr Milne said in his report that he had wanted to find out whether Sutcliffe's killings, because of their nature, had any strong sexual connections. Dr Milne stated: "I found that there was no suggestion that the accused is any way sexually deviant or the his wife is sexually deviant."

Dr Milne had also interviewed Sonia Sutcliffe on a number of occasions. He found that, because of schizophrenic illness, she had to give up teacher training in 1972. She had spent 22 days in a Bradford psychiatric hospital. She was said to have expressed disillusionment and was excited and disturbed for a considerable amount of time.

She had been unable to go back to her job. In May 1976, her doctor said she had made a good recovery from the illness and recommended she be given the chance to resume teacher training. She had said that she was happily married and wished to be in full employment to supplement the family income. Dr Milne said that since that time she had shown no signs of a recurrance of the illness."

Dr Milne's report said: "She readily admits that she had been at times tempermental and difficult, and freely admits that she had teased and provoked her husband, who said himself that the marriage had its ups and downs. He told me that she was over-excited, highly-strung, unstable and obsessed with cleanliness. If he wanted to read a newspaper she would shout at him, swipe him and, as a result, he would hold her but never hit her."

Dr Milne had also been told by Mr Sutcliffe that Sonia had shouted at him to such an extent that he was embarrassed as he thought that the neighbours must have heard her.

Dr Milne's report said that Mr Sutcliffe had a Catholic upbringing and, after his arrest, said he was a devout Catholic: "Whilst he was in custody he became involved with the Christian faith and was in contact with a Roman Catholic chaplain at Armley jail, Leeds. His involvement with the chaplain was in itself diagnostic with his mental illness."

The report said that in reply to the question about why he and his wife had no children, Sutcliffe had said that they preferred material possessions. Sexual relations with his wife were extremely satisfactory, and Mr Sutcliffe free admitted to sexual involvement before his marriage, while his wife denied having any sexual experiences prior to the marriage.

Dr Milne said of Mr Sutcliffe: "He completely denies that he was using the assaults to help in the sexual situation. There is no suggestion that he is a sadistic, sexual deviant. I am convinced that the killings were not sexual in any way and the stabbings which were a feature of the assaults had no sexual component."

Dr Milne reported: "I have had the opportunity of spending many hours with the accused and there is little doubt that he is friendly and open in his manner and at no time did he withhold information."

Mr Sutcliffe did freely admit to withholding information from the senior medical officer at Armley Jail. He said he had done so because of a remark she had made to the effect that his wife was stupid if she maintained that she didn't know what he had been doing over the past years.

The Sutcliffes had an intense relationship, while on one hand loving, at the other extreme, sometimes very angry with each other. The report said: "It is interesting to note that he has had episodes at home typical of an anxiety or panic attack. This may obviously relate to his concern at the time he was offending."

Peter Sutcliffe had been employed as a gravedigger in Bingley. On one occasion, while he was working in the Catholic section of the cemetery, he had experienced symptoms of a long-standing paranoid schizophrenic illness. The report said: "He described when he was working he heard a mumbling voice, looked up and saw nobody, got out of the grave and though he was imagining what he was hearing."

Mr Sutcliffe had said: "It appeared to be coming from the top of the cross. It was an echoing voice, vague and distant, and it repeated itself some two or three times, and it was direct from the stone itself and I have never forgotten it."

Mr Sutcliffe said that when he read the inscription on the gravestone he did not understand it as it was written in Polish. However, he said you could read a foreign language as if it sounded like English and remembered a strange word that he thought might mean "Jesus". He also thought the inscription on the gravestone might mean "We be echo." Mr Sutcliffe said: "I decided it was some kind of message from God. I was working in a cemetery, but it did not frighten me. It was just a job."

Mr Sutcliffe said: "It had a really strange effect. I felt I was privileged to hear it. I went back to the stone several times but I never heard it again. I had quite a lot of messages. I have had all kinds of words and messages since." They had helped bring him out of depression. Mr Sutcliffe said that: "Over the years, I have had hundreds of messages, not always religious." He stated that: "When I have been on this sequence of kills I have heard, 'God giveth and God taketh life' and 'God works in mysterious ways' and odd comments as normal conversation to kill and wipe out all the people called scum who cannot justify themselves in society."

Mr Sutcliffe told Dr Milne: "I have tried to fight it. I have been frightened of it. I have been unsuccessful and I wondered whether it was God when I killed an innocent person."

Mr Sutcliffe said that he suffered dreadful misgivings that it was not God's voice after the killing of Josephine Whitaker. Mr Sutcliffe said: "I hated to think it was the devil." He also said he had been in a terrible state for a year after the killing of Barbara Leach. He told Dr Milne: "Didn't kill. Mental anguish."

Mr Sutcliffe also described being completely under the control of the voice after the Barbara Leach killing: "I had lost the battle, God had won the battle." He had thought the voice might be the devil's after the killings of Josephine Whitaker and Barbara Leach: "But the voice told me Whitaker and Leach were prostitutes. God knew best." Mr Sutcliffe also said: "God wouldn't have punished them. Prositutes are not innocent. God couldn't make a mistake."

When Peter Sutcliffe was interviewed by Dr Milne on January 14 1981, he said that (in 1969) he had been told by his brother that Sonia had been seen with another man. Mr Sutcliffe then went to find her and confront her and they had a row. Dr Milne's report said: "He could not imagine she had been unfaithful to him." During the argument, Mr Sutcliffe had said to Sonia he would go and buy Durex from a chemist so she could have intercourse with the man. After the row ended, Mr Sutcliffe: "walked off from Sonia in an angry and resentful frame of mind."

Mr Sutcliffe, later that day, was attracted to a girl soliciting from the pavement. He took her in his car to her sister's place and gave her £10. Mr Sutcliffe said that they did not have sexual intercourse, and the girl offered to take him to a garage where he could get change for the £10 he had given her (for the £5 fee).

Dr Milne's report said: "He had threatening remarks made to him by some man and the girl laughed at him. He became extremely angry and left. From this moment on he became consumed with hatred for prostitutes."

Sutcliffe said that he later saw the girl with another prostitute in public place. Dr Milne's report said: "They laughed at him and embarrassed him and he left with a hatred built up for prostitutes." Mr Ognall said that the report also stated it could be a sign of schizophrenia that Mr Sutcliffe felt the prostitutes were laughing at him. The report said: "He was convince from that moment on that prostitutes were hateful people."

When Mr Sutcliffe was working at Anderton Circlips in Bingley, he was told by workmates that there was: "a plague of prostitutes in Keighley." Based on that remark he went to Keighley looking for prostitutes, which eventually resulted in the attack on Anna Rogulskyj.

Mr Sutcliffe was said to have told Dr Milne: "I had a hatred for prostitutes. I don't know what to think. It was a pathological hatred. I was seized in a grip, difficult to explain, occasionally getting depressed at times with splitting headaches. Sometimes I didn't want to go on living. I didn't tell people because it would pass off."

Mr Sutcliffe told Dr Milne that the thought that Sonia was seeing someone else nearly drove him out of his mind. When questioned about whether he had had sexual intercourse with a prostitute, he had answered no. Mr Ognall said that Sutcliffe had sexual intercourse with prostitute Helen Rytka, but that there was no suggestion that he had intercourse with the victim in any of the other offences.

Dr Milne said that while it was not possible to give a date when Mr Sutcliffe believed he was carrying out the instructions of God or being on a mission for God, it was a possibility that, after the murders of Wilma McCann and Emily Jackson, the murder of Irene Richardson could be the one which put a time factor on the belief that God was controlling his behaviour.

The report said that it would be relevant to comment that Mr Sutcliffe had said in earlier interviews that after the attacks on both Wilma McCann and Emily Jackson he had fled the scene in panic. However, by the time of the Irene Richardson murder he had carefully replaced her clothes and boots, which suggested a man behaving in a controlled way, and not a man in panic.

When Dr Milne asked Mr Sutcliffe if he felt he had the protection of God, Mr Sutcliffe had replied that at the times of the attacks he was confident he was chosen to do it and it was his calling and he didn't have any qualms about it.

Mr Sutcliffe had told Dr Milne: "If I was allowed out from prison I would know it was all right. I am here now but it might be only temporary. If I was out the feeling would be back," adding that he knew it was wrong to kill, but if he had a reason it was: "justified and all right."

Mr Ognall said that in the report was reference to an occasion when a prostitute had come up to Peter and Sonia Sutcliffe while they were walking hand and hand during their honeymoon in Paris in 1974. Mr Sutcliffe had shown no response to this. However, later on, while they were coming out of a station, Sonia had been dragged away by a man who had thought she was a prostitute.

Mr Sutcliffe was said to have told Dr Milne: "I must have thought that the man thought Sonia was a prostitute rather than Sonia saying something to him. From that time we stayed glued together." Dr Milne said that this was an example of: "this man's distorted thinking as a result of his long-standing schizophrenic illness."

Mr Sutcliffe had been questioned about the weapons he had used. He denied trying to mutilate his victims. He told Dr Milne: "Rather than mutilate them, I leave them exposed to show them up because there is no reason to mutilate. It's only a matter of killing them."

In his report, Dr Milne said that he could find absolutely no reason for why Mr Sutcliffe had stabbed his victims through the same hole on repeated occasions. There was no suggestion that Mr Sutcliffe had a specific sexual symbolism.

Mr Sutcliffe had said about the murder of Jean Jordan that he remembered reading in a church magazine an artcle where a priest warned about prostitutes in Moss Side, Manchester: "This was my message. It was certainly a message. I remember reading it and the priest saying it and that is why I went. It was given to me in print that time and then the voices came."

This illustrated, Dr Milne said, how Sutcliffe believed that messages had been passed to him in various way from God. This was typical of classical schizophrenic illness.

When questioned, Mr Sutcliffe said that he had used a rope for the attacks on Upadhya Bandara and Marguerite Walls because he was: "getting angry with the media because they were calling him the Ripper."

Dr Milne's report said: "He wished to show that he was not the Ripper and used the rope. He didn't like it because it took longer and was unpleasant."

Questioned about the Marguerite Walls murder, Mr Sutcliffe had said: "I was on my way to Leeds primed with weapons for the mission. She lifted her leg up, put it down and then lifted it up again. She looked like a prostitute and was walking at a snail's pace. I killed her with no doubt. The voice shouted 'Filthy prostitute'. It wasn't like my voice it was filthy and angry. Not like me. I don't get angry. I knew it was me who had done what I had done with my own hands, and when I get into the depression this happens."

Dr Milne's report said that Mr Sutcliffe's comments illustrated two aspects of schizophrenic illness. Firstly, his behaviour which allowed him to believe that innocent women were prostitutes. Secondly, his inability to control what he was doing physically, even though he knew what he was doing was wrong.

When asked about the Jacqueline Hill killing, Mr Sutcliffe had said: "She turned round and looked as is she was adjusting her skirt or her stocking, and this suggested that it was the behaviour of a prostitute. God invested me with the means of killing. He has got me out of trouble and I am in God's hands. He misled police and perhaps God was involved in the tapes so the police would be misled."

When Dr Milne asked Mr Sutcliffe about why he was in custody, he had replied: "I may deserve a rest or he has chosen someone else. But I have heard God since I have been here. It seems like God has chosen to put me here."

When asked about the hoax tapes received by the police, Mr Sutcliffe said: "God has another disciple. I'm fairly convinced. No tapes for a while. My mission is halted for a while. I might carry on shortly. The other fellow may send more tapes. God may have stopped."

Donald Sumner, the first witness called by the prosecution, stated that on the night of Peter Sutcliffe's motorcyle accident he had been riding pillion behind Sutcliffe: "We had a puncture while we were going along and came off the bike. Peter went into a lamp-post and I went sliding down the road. Peter hit his head and was bleeding. There was damage to his crash-helmet. He looked a right clown."

When asked how they got home, Mr Sumner replied: "I think we walked, but I'm not right sure."

Before the adjournment, Trevor Birdsall, of Ribbleton Grove, Pollard's Park, Bradford, West Yorkshire, went into the witness box. He revealed that the bill for the London hotel he was staying in was being paid by the Sunday People newspaper. Questioning by Sir Michael Havers about the financial arrangements he had with the newspaper, Mr Birdsall replied that the newspaper had helped him pay his bills, had given him £500, and until two weeks ago, was paying him £65 a week expenses. As well, the newspaper had put him up in hotels at their expense, and he had been charging everything, including drinks, to their account.

Mr Justice Boreham: "You are here to give evidence whatever arrangement you may have made with anyone else. Your duty here is to give evidence to the best of your ability. Whatever has gone on in the past, from this moment on, you will not discuss your evidence with anybody else, whether from a newspaper or from any other source. If you break that injunction then my powers are very wide and immediate."

Mr Birdsall had had information about Mr Sutcliffe for a long time, Sir Michael had told the jury. However, it was not until late last year that he told the police of an incident in 1969 when they had been in Bradford's red-light district with Mr Sutcliffe. Mr Sutcliffe had left the car they were in for a short time, and when he returned he had told Mr Birdsall that he had hit a woman with a stone inside a sock.

Mr Birdsall had also been out with Mr Sutcliffe on the night Olive Smelt was attacked in 1975 in Halifax. Even though Mr Birdsall read of the attack the next day in the newspapers, he did not do anything about it.

The hearing continues tomorrow.


THURSDAY, MAY 7 1981: ARREST, FRIENDS

The first witness of the day was Trevor Birdsall, 32, of Pollard Park, Bradford. He was questioned by Sir Michael Havers, prosecuting.

Mr Birdsall said that he and Peter Sutcliffe, an old friend of his, use to drive around the red light districts. The outings took place between 1967 and 1969. During one of the first trips to those areas they had seen a woman staggering around in the road, as if drunk. Mr Sutcliffe had then stopped the car and disappeared with the woman for between ten and twenty minutes.

Mr Birdsall was then questioned by Sir Michael Havers about the night that he was with Peter Sutcliffe when he hit a woman on the head with a stone in a sock. The incident had taken place in Bradford's red light district in about 1969.

While Mr Birdsall was driving a Mini car along Manningham Lane, Bradford, Mr Sutcliffe asked him to stop the car. Mr Sutcliffe then got out of the car and went up St Paul's Road and out of sight. Mr Birdsall said the when he returned to the car, he got in: "Fairly quickly. He looked a bit excited and was not breathing normally. It looked as if he had possibly been running."

Sir Michael asked whether Mr Sutcliffe had said anything. Mr Birdsall replied: "He just told me to drive off. I asked him where he had been, and he said he had followed a woman to a house somewhere. He said that he had hit her, I'm not too sure. He mentioned something about some money, but I can't remember too well."

Sir Michael: "Did you get any impression as to what sort of woman he had followed?"

Mr Birdsall: "I would imagine the lady was a prostitute - but that was just my guess - because of the area."

Sir Michael: "Had he got anything with him?"

Mr Birdsall: "Yes. He pulled a sock from his pocket and there was a small brick or stone in it. I think he threw the stone out the window."

Asked if Mr Sutcliffe had said anything about using the stone, Mr Birdsall replied: "I think he said that he did, but I don't know whether to believe him or not."

Mr Justice Boreham: "Don't worry about that. Did he say whether he had used it?"

Mr Birdsall: "I think he did, yes. I think he hit her on the head. That's what he said."

Following the incident, the car had been traced and Mr Sutcliffe had been interviewed by the police. Mr Sutcliffe had told Mr Birdsall that everything was all right.

Sir Michael asked Mr Birdsall how Mr Sutcliffe reacted to the sight of prostitutes. Mr Birdsall: "He'd comment if he saw a particular young woman with big knockers on." Mr Birdsall also said that Mr Sutcliffe had told him that he had been with prostitutes more than once. Mr Sutcliffe also mentioned that sometimes he did not pay.

Mr Birdsall then described the night of August 15 1975, when he had been out with Peter Sutcliffe. It was also the night that 51-year-old Olive Smelt had been brutally attacked in the Boothtown area of Halifax.

Mr Birdsall: "We went out to Halifax in Peter's car and went to a few pubs. We probably saw about half a dozen unattached women. I remember Peter leaning across to them and talking to them. I think he said he thought this was a prostitutes' pub. On the way home we passed through the Boothtown area of Halifax, which is not a red-light area. Peter stopped the car and got out and said he was going to speak to somebody. I didn't take any notice if he had anything with him but he seemed to put his hand down the side of the seat. There was a couple of people walking past, and I remember seeing a woman. She was walking quickly and Peter went round the back of the car and disappeared. He didn't seem to go in the same direction as the woman but was away ten to twenty minutes. When he came back he said he had been talking to a woman, but he was quiet, unusually quiet. The next evening I read in the Telegraph & Argus a report about a brutal attack on a woman in Boothtown. It crossed my mind that Peter might be connected with it."

When asked by Sir Michael whether he remembered a tape-recording, which became known as the "Ripper tape", Mr Birdsall replied: "Yes, I think I heard it."

Sir Michael: "Did you think, after hearing that tape, that there might be a connection with what Mr Sutcliffe did and the attempted murder of Olive Smelt when you heard that tape? What effect did it have on you?"

Mr Birdsall: "I thought there was no chance at all that it could be him. It destroyed the link."

Mr Birdsall stated that last year he had gone out for a drink with Peter Sutcliffe in his dark red Rover. Afterwards, he had read about the murder of Jacqueline Hill in Leeds. Mr Birdsall: "The paper gave a description of the car thought to have been used by the murderer - a red Rover saloon. I thought it was possible it was the same as Sutcliffe's car. I sent an anonymous note to police on the 26th of November last year. I was worried more about it, and very shortly after that I went to see the police myself."

Mr Birdsall was then cross-examined by James Chadwin, QC, defending. Mr Birdsall agreed that in all the time that he had known Mr Sutcliffe he had never indicated a hatred for prostitutes. Mr Chadwin asked him whether he had believed Mr Sutcliffe when he said he had been with prostitutes, Mr Birdsall replied: "I don't know whether it was true or whether he was showing off."

Mr Birdsall also agreed that Mr Sutcliffe had been quiet and calm for someone who had moments before apparently struck a woman on the head. Mr Birdsall said that Mr Sutcliffe tended to be a rather quiet person: "with a shy attitude to women generally."

Mr Birdsall: "I now know Sutcliffe has admitted what happened in the last five years, but I still find it difficult to fit that in with the man I have known for so long, a rather quiet, unaggressive person."

The next witness was Ronald Barker of Tanton Cresent, Clayton, Bradford. He was asked by Harry Ognall, QC, for the prosecution, about any payments made to him by the Press for information about Mr Sutcliffe. Mr Barker replied that his mother had received £700 for a photograph of Peter Sutcliffe's wedding from the Sun newspaper. The People newspaper had taken photographs of him in Chapeltown, Leeds, but while he had not yet received any payment, he expected to get £400 from them.

Mr Barker, a single man, lived next door to the Szurma family, whose daughter Sonia married Peter Sutcliffe in August 1974. Mr Barker told the court that since 1974 he had been in the habit of keeping a diary.

Mr Ognall asked Mr Barker to consult his diary for May 28 1977 and tell the jury about a trip to York. Mr Barker said he remembered making the trip with his brother David and Mr Sutcliffe. Mr Barker: "It was a Saturday night and the three of us went to York. Peter wanted to go to Manchester, but I thought it was too far to go. It was about 8 pm on a Saturday night, and we had just dropped Sonia off at a part-time job."

They called at a number of public houses in York, and Mr Sutcliffe disappeared while he and his brother were playing pool. Mr Barker: "We were a bit annoyed because we didn't know how to get back, and at closing time we walked back to the car and Peter was standing near it. It was three-quarters of an hour since we saw him last, and he told us that he had followed a lass out of the pub. I can't remember him saying anything else."

On the journey back from York, Mr Barker expected to be taken straight back home to Bradford. He feel asleep in the car. Mr Barker: "When I woke up, we were in Chapeltown, Leeds, and I asked what we were doing there."

When asked whether it was necessary to drive through Chapeltown to get home, Mr Barker replied: "No. Peter was driving and I think he said something about this being Ripper country. The car stopped in Chapeltown somewhere and Peter got out. He didn't say where he was going and we didn't ask. He walked off and was away for about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes."

Mr Barker was asked by Mr Ognall to refer to his diary entry for the night of Saturday, June 25 1977, which, he reminded the jury, was the night of the murder of 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald in Leeds. Mr Barker said that he, his brother, and Peter Sutcliffe had gone out to a pub in Heaton, Bradford, and then visited approximately three more. Mr Sutcliffe was not drunk as he had only had small bottles of brown ale. At the end of the night, at around 1:30 am, Mr Sutcliffe had dropped the brothers off at home and gone off by himself.

Mr Barker said that they had also been out with Mr Sutcliffe on July 9 1977, the same night that Maureen Long had been attacked.

Mr Barker said Mr Sutcliffe sometimes told him about girls he had been with. Mr Barker: "He said he went with a nurse at one time. He also said something about having two girls follow him back to the car the previous night. He said that he had one of them in the back and one over the bonnet. He told me that in 1977. Sometimes he would shout to girls from the car. He was fascinated by the red light areas and always wanted to look at whores. Sometimes he got out of the car and followed them. I don't know why he resorted to them, because he had such a lovely wife sitting at home."

Mr Barker then spoke of the tours through red light districts which Sutcliffe had made after they had been out drinking together: "I always wanted to go home but Peter seemed to want to go round the red light districts. These excursions would last between a quarter and half an hour. Peter never said why he wanted to go. It happened three or four times in 1977."

Cross-examined by James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, Mr Barker said he had learned about Mr Sutcliffe's arrest on Monday, January 5 1981, There had been a great deal of publicity then and Mr Barker agreed with Mr Chadwin that it was obvious to everyone at that time that the suggestion was that Peter Sutcliffe was the Yorkshire Ripper.

Mr Barker had known Mr Sutcliffe throughout the years of the Yorkshire Ripper attacks and had been a friend of his. He had frequently been out in the company of Mr Sutcliffe from 1975 until 1977.

Mr Chadwin: "Did he ever strike you as an agressive man?"

Mr Barker: "I'm sorry, no. That didn't enter my head." Mr Barker also said that he had never seen anything that suggested that Peter Sutcliffe had an agressive attitude towards women.

Mr Chadwin: "In fact, he was a rather quiet, even shy man?"

Mr Barker: "I would say so."

When he heard what Peter Sucliffe had been accused of, Mr Barker admitted that he was "astonished." He said that in all those years, with all the publicity given to the attacks and killings, it had never crossed his mind that Mr Sutcliffe had had anything to do with it, not until the actual arrest.

Mr Barker said that on the Thursday of the week following Mr Sutcliffe's arrest the Sun newspaper had seen him about the photographs of Peter and Sonia Sutcliffe's wedding. It wasn't until a week later that he learned of the "massive amounts" that were being offered for photographs.

In answer to Mr Chadwin, Mr Barker said that he had assumed there would be some interest from the Press about his account of how Mr Sutcliffe had got out of his car in Chapeltown.

Mr Chadwin: "You see, Mr Barker, although the car may have passed somewhere near Chapeltown on its way through Leeds, that car did not stop and Peter Sutcliffe did not get out of it."

Mr Barker: "You can suggest what you like. I have said what happened."

Mr Chadwin: "You entertain some hope or expectation that there may be some more money available to you if your story is published in the press?"

Mr Barker: "Yes."

Mr Barker was asked by Mr Chadwin whether he thought what Mr Sutcliffe had said about having one girl in the car and another one over the bonnet was true. Mr Barker: "Knowing Peter at the time I suppose you could say that I thought he was spinning a line, but he did say it."

The next witness was David Barker, the brother of Ronald Barker. Under questioning by Harry Ognall, QC, for the prosecution, Mr Barker, who is serving an eighteen-month prison sentence for grievious bodily harm, admitted that he had received £20 from ITN at the beginning of March, and £10 from the BBC on March 23rd. Mr Ognall commented: "The BBC were a bit slower." Mr Barker had been paid just to talk about Peter Sutcliffe.

Mr Barker then spoke about the times he and Mr Sutcliffe had gone out drinking and then went to red light areas during the early morning hours. They would go in Mr Sutcliffe's car to the Chapeltown area of Leeds. Mr Barker: "We have been there three or four times between 1976 and 1977. We went there just for something to do. I have heard that is where prostitutes hung out."

When asked what business the two of them wanted with the prostitutes in the area, Mr Barker replied: "We wanted to go just for a laugh."

The next witness was Olivia Reivers, the prostitute that Peter Sutcliffe was arrested with in his car in Sheffield. Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General, for the prosecution, questioned her about any money she may have received from a newspaper for her story. Miss Reivers: "Yes. The Daily Star paid me £1,000 but I had to give my solicitor £300 out of that."

When asked if she had signed an exclusive contract with the newspaper and was expecting any more money, Miss Reivers replied: "Yes, there is another £3,000 to come."

Prior to the arrest of Mr Sutcliffe, Sir Michael asked her about the events of January 2nd. Miss Reivers, a prostitute for four years, said that she left her home in Sheffield at 7:30 pm, and had a client prior to Mr Sutcliffe. She carried on with another prostitute, named Christine, after that first client.

It was while walking along Broomhall Street when she saw a Rover car. Miss Reivers: "I was walking on the pavement when it stopped. The driver asked me if I was doing business and I said I was. I told him it was £10 in the car with a rubber. He said that it was OK."

Miss Reivers had directed him to a quiet road called Melbourne Avenue. When they arrived, Mr Sutcliffe had reversed the car into the driveway, something that no other client had done. Miss Reivers: "He stopped his car and turned out the lights. I said to him: 'Would you like to pay first, please?' He gave me a £10 note and I took a rubber out and had it in my hand putting the money into the packet. He asked: 'Do you mind if I talk to you a bit?' I said: 'No.' He said that he had had an argument with his wife. He did not say what about or what the result of the argument had been. He asked me my name and I said 'Sharron.' He said his name was Dave. He then took off his car-coat and put it on the back seat. He said: 'Would you like to get in the back?' I said 'No, its all right.'"

Mr Sutcliffe had leaned across her with his fly unzipped, and she had touched his penis. Miss Reivers said that she tried for approximately 15 minutes to get Mr Sutcliffe to have sex. Miss Reivers: "He was a bit nervous. I sensed it. I said: 'There's nothing to worry about. Why are you frightened?'"

When asked what happened when she failed, Miss Reivers said: "I said: 'I do not think we will be able to do it', and he said: 'It looks like it.' His trousers were still open. The next thing that happened was the police car came. I peered through the windscreen and saw the police car. I turned round and said: 'It's the police.' He said: "Leave it to me. Tell them you're are my girlfriend." Miss Reivers said that she agreed, and that she thought he was frightened.

Peter Sutcliffe then rolled down the window and told the policeman that the car was his and that his name was Peter Williams. Meanwhile, the second policeman was at the back of the car looking at the number plates.

Miss Reivers heard the sound of the police sergeant using his car radio. The police then told Mr Sutcliffe about the plates being wrong for the car. After the police spoke to her and went back to their police car, Mr Sutcliffe asked her: "Can't you make a run for it?" Miss Reivers said she had replied: "No, I can't. I'm a very well-known prostitute."

Both Mr Sutcliffe and Miss Reivers were taken to the police station. Mr Sutcliffe was asked to empty his pockets, and among the items he took out was a blue and pink length of rope about two feet long. It was the type used for washing lines. It was later said to have been used by Mr Sutcliffe during two of his attacks.

Under cross-examination by James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, Miss Reivers agreed that during the whole encounter with Mr Sutcliffe, he had never achieved any sort of erection.

Mr Harry Ognall, QC, for the prosecution, read the statement made by Sergeant Bob Ring who, along with Probationary Constable Robert Hydes, had arrested Mr Sutcliffe. Sgt Ring's statement had been written on January 4 1981.

Sgt Ring had said that while on routine patrol on January 2nd, he and PC Hydes had checked out the grounds of a large detached house, used as an office, in Melbourne Avenue, Sheffield. They had seen a Rover parked in the driveway without lights. Sgt Ring's statement said: "I remained in the car whilst PC Hydes went to the Rover, then I joined Constable Hydes at the driver's door." He said he saw a couple inside the Rover.

Sgt Ring began to question the man: "I said: 'Who's she?' He said: 'My girlfriend.' I said: 'What's her name?' He said: 'I don't know, I have not known her that long.' I said: 'Who are you trying to kid? I haven't fallen off the Christmas tree.' He said: 'I'm not suggesting you have.'"

After having made checks by radio on the Rover's registration number, he had found it related to a Skoda and so he confiscated the ignition keys. PC Hydes said that the tax license was also for another vehicle and the officers took that.

Sergeant Ring said that Miss Reivers was taken to the police car. When he returned to the Rover, he heard a scuffle: "Sutcliffe was coming from this direction. I said: 'What are you doing there?' He said: 'I've fallen off that fucking wall.' I said: 'What were you doing there?' He said: 'I wanted to piss.' I told him to go at the side of the building if he wanted to, but he said he wouldn't bother."

Twenty-four hours later, Sgt Ring was back at the scene of the arrest: "At the corner of the building and near an oil storage tank among a pile of leaves, I saw an engineer's ball-pein hammer and on closer examination saw the shiny blade of a wooden-handled knife, partially covered by the hammer shaft." He left them there and contacted his headquarters.

Five days later, Sgt Ring was again on duty and had had time to consider the events of the night of the arrest: "During that recollection, I realised that Peter Sutcliffe had been alone in a toilet at the police station immediately following his arrival and prior to being processed." After telling a Detective Inspector, the toilet was searched and a wooden-handled knife was found in the cistern. Both of the two knives and the hammer were court exhibits.

The next witness was Detective Sergeant Desmond O'Boyle who told the court that he had interviewed Mr Sutcliffe the day of his arrest. He introduced himself as from the Ripper squad. He had said to Mr Sutcliffe: "You have been previously interviewed about you and your car being seen in prostitute areas and you were adamant that you weren't a punter, but having said that, your conduct last night would seem to indicate that you may well be telling lies when you were asked previously."

Mr O'Boyle said that when asked to give a blood test, Mr Sutcliffe seemed concerned and did not want to co-operate.

Mr Sutcliffe at one point asked: "What if it's the same as the one you're wanting?"

Mr O'Boyle then asked: "Are you the Ripper?" Sutcliffe said that he wasn't.

Mr O'Boyle then asked: "Well what have you to fear?"

Mr Sutcliffe had replied: "Oh, all right then. Will you let me know the result of the blood test as soon as you get it?" Mr Sutcliffe then gave a specimen, and also provided a sample of his handwriting.

Mr Sutcliffe told Det Sgt O'Boyle that he had left his home at about 4:00 pm to look for spare parts for his Mini and Rover cars. He found one number plate had fallen off a Skoda, and pulled off the other. Since his insurance had run out the previous night, and he was due on a breathalyser charge, he thought he could use the plates for a few days.

Describing Sutcliffe's manner during the interview, Mr O'Boyle said: "He was very calm and pleasant and cooperative".

James Chadwin, QC, for the defence: "The two things he might be said to have reacted to was the suggestion that he was a punter. He clearly did not like that suggestion?"

Mr O'Boyle: "No, I agree with you."

Mr Chadwin: "Then some reaction though not very much to the suggestion that he should give a blood sample?"

Mr O'Boyle: "He seemed concerned when I mentioned a blood test. He didn't seem as if he wanted to cooperate, though he eventually did."

Mr O'Boyle related that during the interview, Mr Sutcliffe had said that earlier on in the evening of his arrest that he had given a lift to three lads to Rotherham and Sheffield: "To my surprise, they offered me £10 to take them." Just after 10:00 pm, in Sheffield, he fixed the Skoda number plates over those on his Rover.

Mr O'Boyle said that Mr Sutcliffe stated that a woman flagged him down, and thinking she was in trouble, he stopped. She asked him whether he wanted "business." Mr Sutcliffe then told the detective: "I was surprised I did not know she was a prostitute. I thought about things and realised I had £10 burning a hole in my pocket, and thought I might as well use it. The first girl had disappeared, so I drove on and saw another girl and stopped. She asked me if I wanted business. She got into the car and told me where to drive. I paid her £10. I did not want sex - I just wanted to talk about my problems at home. I did not want sex at all." It was then that the police arrived.

Mr O'Boyle said that when he asked whether Mr Sutcliffe was having normal sex with his wife, Mr Sutcliffe had replied he had been: "The last time was about four days ago." Asked about whether they had sex even though they rowed, Mr Sutcliffe said: "We forget about rows when we go to bed."

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.


FRIDAY, MAY 8 1981: OTHER PROSECUTION WITNESSES

The next prosecution witness was Detective Inspector John Boyle of West Yorkshire police, the officer to whom Peter Sutcliffe confessed to being the Yorkshire Ripper.

Mr Sutcliffe had been unable to tell the police which hammer, knife, or screwdriver he had used for each attack. He had kept all his weapons in a pile in his garage. Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I didn't choose one. I just picked one up."

Mr Boyle stated that Mr Sutcliffe had taken police officers to various locations in West Yorkshire, where weapons which he had thrown away were recovered. Police had recovered a screwdriver from the Woolley Edge motorway service station on the M1, about 11 miles south of Leeds city centre. Mr Sutcliffe said he had thrown it away while in his lorry last summer. He said it belonged to him and he had kept it in his garage for a long time. He had sharpened it on a grindstone to use it as a bradawl.

Mr Sutcliffe told Mr Boyle that he had not used it for work. When he was asked why he had it in the cab of his lorry, Mr Sutcliffe replied: "I just took it to throw it away, that's all. It looked a horrible thing."

Mr Boyle said he would never forget the moment when Mr Sutcliffe confessed that he was the Yorkshire Ripper. Sutcliffe told him: "I think you have been leading up to it." Mr Boyle had asked him to explain, and Sutcliffe replied: "About the Yorkshire Ripper. Well, it's me."

Mr Boyle was cross-examined by James Chadwin, QC, for the defence. Mr Chadwin: "You must have interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects in your time. Some are easy and very co-operative, while some are very difficult, but would you say Sutcliffe was one of the easiest and most co-operative you've come across?"

Mr Boyle: "Yes, that's a fair comment." He also agreed that Mr Sutcliffe had answered all questions and that he was as co-operative as any man he had interviewed.

Mr Boyle also said that he had offered Mr Sutcliffe the chance to have a solicitor present during the interview but that Mr Sutcliffe said, quite politely, that he did not need one.

Mr Boyle also agreed that after Sutcliffe confessed to the murders he had said a number of things which did not "show him in a very good light," including his comment: "I would have killed that girl in Sheffield if I hadn't been caught."

Mr Boyle also agree that Sutcliffe remained calm, at times incredible calm, throughout the interview. Mr Chadwin: "Did you at any stage see Sutcliffe in all these interviews become excited or distressed?"

Mr Boyle: "No."

Mr Boyle agreed that Mr Sutcliffe had wanted to throw the best light he could on his activities. Mr Sutcliffe told him: "It grew and grew until I became a beast." He also had said: "I know I would have gone on and on and I'm glad I was caught. I just want to unload the burden."

Mr Chadwin began to read phrases from Mr Sutcliffe's statement. He had told police that after his first killing, of Wilma McCann: "I carried on trying to act as normal, living with my wife. After that first time I developed a hatred for prostitutes in order to justify within myself a reason why I attacked and killed Wilma McCann."

Mr Chadwin: "That does not make sense when you remember his previous attacks, does it?"

Mr Boyle: "Of course not."

Mr Chadwin read Sutcliffe's remark: "I felt an inner compulsion to kill prostitutes. I went looking for prostitutes because I felt I could not justify what I had done before. Looking back, I can see how that first murder unhinged me completely."

Mr Boyle agreed that further on in the statement, Mr Sutcliffe had said: "I wanted to do what I had got in my mind as soon as possible."

Mr Chadwin: "What he had in mind was to kill a woman?"

Mr Boyle: "Yes."

Mr Chadwin continued reading from Mr Sutcliffe's statement: "I had a feeling of satisfaction for what I had done." Mr Boyle said he believed Mr Sutcliffe meant one less prostitute.

Mr Sutcliffe had stated: "After the Richardson killing, prostitutes became an obsession for me - I could not stop myself, it was like some sort of drug."

Of Jayne MacDonald's murder, he had said: "At this time the urge to kill prostitutes was very strong and I had gone out of my mind."

Of Jean Jordan's murder in Manchester, he had said: "My desire to kill prostitutes was getting stronger than ever and it took me over completely." After describing "in revolting detail" the murder, he had said: "I have been taken over completely by this urge to kill and I cannot fight it."

Of Helen Rytka's murder, he had said: "I had the urge to kill any woman. The urge inside me to kill girls was now practically uncontrollable."

Of the Vera Millward's murder, he had said: "The urge inside me still dominates my action. Following Millward, the compulsion inside me remained dormant, but then the feeling came welling up. I had the urge to kill any woman. It sounds a bit evil now. There I was walking along with a big hammer and a big Phillips screwdriver in my pocket ready for the inevitable (Whitaker murder)."

Mr Sutcliffe had also said: "My urge to kill remains strong and was totally out of control."

Mr Chadwin also read from Mr Sutcliffe statement about his last murder, of Jacqueline Hill: "The girl fell down and was making a noise. By this time I as in a world of my own, out of touch with reality."

Mr Sutcliffe said he had forced Jacqueline Hill's bra over her head to expose her breasts after she was dead, so he could stab her more easily. He had stabbed her through the eye with a screwdriver. Mr Sutcliffe said: "I just put it to her lid and with the handle in my palm I just jerked it in."

Mr Boyle said that he had interviewed Mr Sutcliffe four days after the arrest, when he had been formally charged with the murder of 20-year-old university student Jacqueline Hill. Mr Sutcliffe had said: "Well, I'm terribly sorry about the tragic loss to her family and friends and I would do anything to alter what has happened. I'm glad that I've been apprehended, because I was totally out of my mind when I committed this and other acts."

Mr Boyle was asked whether Mr Sutcliffe had dealt with all his offences in a way that did not: "tone down or soften the enormity of them."

Mr Justice Boreham interrupted to say that was a matter for the jury, not for Mr Boyle.

The next prosecution witness was Detective Sergeant Peter Smith of West Yorkshire police, one of the officers to whom Mr Sutcliffe made a detailed confession of his killings. Harry Ognall, QC, for the prosecution, read out the questions from police officers to Mr Sutcliffe, while Mr Smith read Mr Sutcliffe's replies to those questions.

Mr Sutcliffe had said that he had been in a motorcycle accident in 1965 or 1966, after which he began to feel ill. Mr Sutcliffe: "I was left with severe bouts of morbid depression. I used to be subject to hallucinations, just seeing things that aren't there, and getting strange noises in my head, humming and buzzing. I used to think I was hearing things and I started conversing with myself. When I had these sort of attacks I knew what I was doing but I had this inner conflict. My mind was in a haze and I didn't know what was right or wrong. I did not know whether I was acting rationally or not."

Mr Sutcliffe told the police that he might get two attacks per month, sometimes he thought he was all right, but then the feeling would come back. He said there was no pattern to these attacks. He later stated: "The inner torment was unimaginable because, strange as it may seem, I didn't want to kill anyone at all. I just had to get rid of prostitutes, like it or not."

The police interviews with Mr Sutcliffe also dealt with the time he was duped out of £10 by a prostitute in Bradford, and then went looking for her to get even with her. In a statement referring to what led to his hitting a woman on the head with a stone in a sock, Mr Sutcliffe said: "I was out of my mind with the obsession of finding this prostitute. I had been out with Trevor (Birdsall, his friend), looking out for this particular one and it was getting late. I just gave vent to my anger on the first one I saw."

Mr Sutcliffe also stated: "I was over the brink and had it in my mind to kill her, but I never saw her again and it developed into a general loathing for prostitutes."

The interview also went on to describe other attacks on women carried out by Mr Sutcliffe in Halifax, Keighley, and Leeds.

Mr Smith said that Mr Sutcliffe was at no time reluctant to discuss his state of mind. On one occasion, Mr Sutcliffe had said: "If I ever get into one of those depressed states it would lead to the state of hallucination."

When Mr Smith asked about the knife found in a lavatory cistern at the Sheffield police station, Mr Sutcliffe said: "I threw it in there. I went there straight away as soon as I got to the police station. I dropped it in the top of the water cistern so it wouldn't be found in my possession." Mr Sutcliffe also told Mr Smith that he hadn't used the knife in any of his attacks.

Mr Smith read the statement in which he asked Sutcliffe whether all the details he had given were correct. Mr Sutcliffe then told him that his account of the Helen Rytka murder was not completely accurate, as he had confused it in some ways with the Irene Richardson murder.

Mr Sutcliffe had told Mr Smith that: "I know the one purpose I had in mind was to kill at first opportunity." He had also stated that he had meant to kill Dr Bandara, who was attacked in September 1980 in Leeds.

Mr Smith was told by Mr Sutcliffe that, prior to his arrest, when he was questioned by police: "Sonia automatically gave me an alibi on the occasions I was questioned. These occasions were weeks, sometimes months after the event. My wife would agree that we were at home, as we were practically all of the time."

Mr Smith was told by Mr Sutcliffe that he was not responsible for letters and tape recordings sent to police. Mr Sutcliffe had said: "It is not part of my attitude. I am not proud of doing any of the murders."

On a large number of occasions, cars belonging to Mr Sutcliffe, including a Ford Corsair, a Sunbeam Rapier, and a Rover, had been seen in the prostitute areas of Leeds, Bradford, and Manchester. None of the sighting coincided with any of the killings. The police put it to Mr Sutcliffe that on these occasions he was "touring round these areas seeking to do a prostitute harm." Mr Sutcliffe had said: "It is quite obvious there were occasions when I did not see any prostitutes. After a certain length of time if I didn't see any prostitutes I would go home. It was my intention to get rid of the prostitutes at any cost."

When cross-examined by James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, Mr Smith recalled that when Mr Sutcliffe was being quesioned about the attack on Dr Bandara, he had said that he had not wanted to kill any of his victims. Mr Smith said Mr Sutcliffe told him: "I think my intentions were to kill her. At this point I wanted to say that, in myself, I didn't want to kill any of them. It was just something that had to be done."

Mr Smith said that during the interviews Mr Sutcliffe had remained calm, polite and had never become angry.

On a number of occasions Mr Sutcliffe had shown digust with prostitutes and stressed that there was no question of him seeking sexual gratification when seeking them.

Mr Smith also said that Mr Sutcliffe had talked about his state of mind from time to time, and had mentioned having morbid depressions, hallucinations and brainstorms.

Mr Sutcliffe was asked to explain the 12-month gap between the murders of Emily Jackson and Irene Richardson. He had said: "The main reason, really, is my state of mind. It seemed OK, apart from having a personal battle with my own mind, which was in absolute turmoil about whether the right thing was to kill people or not."

Mr Smith said that when questioned about a 46 week gap between two other attacks, Mr Sutcliffe had told him: "I was never urged to do this again until then."

Mr Sutclliffe had said that in his state of mind: "It did not take me any time at all to decide women were prostitutes - something clicked then."

Referring to the letters and tape sent to the police, Mr Chadwin asked Mr Smith if it was correct that the attitude that emerged from them was of someone who was proud of what he had done. Mr Smith replied: "You could say that."

Mr Chadwin: "In the tapes, there is an air of taunting police in not being able to find him?"

Mr Smith: "Yes."

The next prosecution witness was John Leach, a hospital prison officer at Armley jail, Leeds. He was questioned by Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General.

Sir Michael inquired about the circumstances under which Peter Sutcliffe was kept in prison. Mr Leach replied that Mr Sutcliffe was in a room by himself in the hospital wing. The room had a shower. Mr Sutcliffe was supervised 24 hours a day, and was escorted on each outing from the ward. A logbook was kept by prison officers in which they noted anything about the prisoner they thought relevant, including any signs of illness.

Sir Michael hand the hospital occurence book to Mr Leach and asked him to look at the reference for January 8 1981. Mr Leach said that Mr Sutcliffe's wife had visited him that day in the company of his solicitor, Kerry Macgill, although he was not present for the whole visit.

Sir Michael: "Do you remember anything of significance that Sutcliffe said to his wife that day?"

Mr Leach: "What I have written down here, yes, sir. I made that note directly after I came back into the ward, within two hours of the conversation. They were left for a short while together, Mr Macgill wasn't there. Mrs Sutcliffe used to run the visits, inasmuch as she used to take the lead very much. She brought pieces of paper with itemised things on them because of the limited time of the visits."

When asked what sort of matters, Mr Leach answered: "I think personal matters between Sutcliffe and his wife. Sutcliffe said at one stage, 'I would not feel any animosity towards you if you started a life of your own. I am going to do a long time in prison, 30 years or more, unless I can convince people in here I am mad and maybe then ten years in the loony bin.'"

Sir Michael: "Do you know the expression 'loony bin'?"

Mr Leach: "I thought it was a southern type of expression. I thought it strange coming from Sutcliffe in Yorkshire."

Mr Leach also said that Peter Sutcliffe frequently made the remark to Sonia about her starting a new life.

During cross-examination by Mr James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, Mr Leach was asked if he put down in his prison logs the exact words of conversations between Mr Sutcliffe and his wife. Mr Leach replied: "I always remembered the gist and put down anything which I think will help the doctors or the governor. I certainly don't remember the exact words but the gist is right."

Mr Leach was asked if he could have been mistaken about some of the words he wrote down about the remarks Mr Sutcliffe had said about the time he might have to serve in prison. Mr Leach replied: "When I wrote this down it would be the passage I felt would have been relevant to the visit as far as the doctors were concerned."

Mr Chadwin asked: "Is it possible that he could have said 'if I can prove' rather than 'get people to believe'?"

Mr Leach replied: "Not to my recollection, I don't think he used the word prove but I'm not 100 per cent sure. I suppose that could have been one of the words."

Mr Chadwin said: "Is it not possible that he said not 'I' but 'we'?"

Mr Leach: "I don't think so."

Mr Chadwin: "I am not meaning his wife, but as you know he had already on one or more occasions seen his solicitor. Maybe that is what he meant."

The next day, after another visit from Mrs Sutcliffe, Mr Leach made a new entry in the log: "A little less frantic than previous visit from his wife but she completely overwhelms and dominates him and the situation."

Mr Chadwin: "Your record says that Sutcliffe told his wife he was guilty of the murders and he could expect to do at least 30 years. Did that have any effect on Mrs Sutcliffe when he told her that?"

Mr Leach: "Not that I can remember. She didn't become excited or agitated - or not more than she became excited or agitated on other occasions."

Mr Leach's first report was on January 7th: "Sutcliffe had visit from wife in the p.m. He said very little, but she never stopped talking."

Mr Chadwin then read several reports by prison officers at Armley Jail who observed Peter Sutcliffe. A report for January 6th read: "He has need to talk at times and boasts about near-misses with police, e.g. having blood all over his hands and being chased by police. Says does not go out intending to kill, but gets compulsion to."

Another entry read: "Very confused. Seems to lose track of time. Seems to think he has been here longer than he has."

A report on January 16th said: "Something said by wife during visit. She kept asking why he had not informed her of his compulsive thoughts, so he could get medical advice. He told her to leave it to the medical people to find out."

A report from January 18th: "Appears quieter than of late. Reading a lot. Begins talking over experiences. Says it seems as if it was his purpose to do what he did."

January 28th: "Talkative, but only about crimes and any possible trial outcome. Has no intention of disclosing anything about himself when not involved in crimes. Now says he was possessed when he committed offences."

February 10th: "Talkative tonight, especially about prisoners on D-wing calling and shouting to each other from windows and an extremely noisy cockroach outside. Quite cheerful talking about trying to rid country of prostitutes and the merits of our police force. Very talkative. Spoke about when gravedigger and used to hear voices which he was convinced came from the grave. One occasion heard voice from Polish tomb. Eyes open very wide and seemed to gleam - obviously when he reached points of conversation interesting to him."

One time Mr Sutcliffe had said he was concerned about the long wait for his trial to start, saying he: "wanted to get his 400 years."

Mr Leach stated that he had read the other prison officers' reports while Sutcliffe was under his care.

Mr Chadwin: "Did he fluctuate from being very talkative to being very quiet?"

Mr Leach: "Yes."

Mr Chadwin: "Did he sit with a book in front of him, but not reading it - just staring into space?"

Mr Leach: "Yes."

When asked by Mr Chadwin if Mr Sutcliffe's mood had fluctuated from being co-operative to being quiet, but had kept a considerable calm throughout the time he was in custody, a certain degree of coolness, Mr Leach said: "He didn't fluctuate much up or down from a normal line."

Mr Chadwin suggested there were certain "stormy visits" when Sutcliffe's wife, Sonia, had become angry and excited. Mr Leach: "Excited, not necessarily angry."

Mr Chadwin inquiried whether officers had been warned to be on their guard against Mr Sutcliffe losing his composure and had been warned to watch his behaviour after visits from his wife. Mr Leach replied: "We knew the situation. We knew Sutcliffe, and the staff there were able to take care of him."

The next prosecution witness was Anthony Fitzpatrick, a prison officer from Armley Jail. He said that his duties included maintaining a full watch over Mr Sutcliffe. He was questioned by Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that during the evening of April 5th he had a conversation with Mr Sutcliffe, which he noted in the log book as he felt it was of sufficient importance. Mr Sutcliffe, after tea, had been reading, and was behaving as he normally did. The two started discussing the possibility that Mr Sutcliffe would be spending time in a long-term prison.

According to Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr Sutcliffe stated: "I am not going to a long-term prison. I am going to Park Lane (a special hospital). A bed has been reserved for me there."

Mr Fitzpatrick said that Mr Sutcliffe also told him: "An agreement has been reached between the defence and the prosecution for a plea of diminished responsibility to be accepted. Kerry Macgill (his solicitor) has told me."

Mr Sutcliffe had also said to him: "I've been told by a psychiatrist that I will have to do no more than ten years, to satisfy the public."

Sir Michael: "What was his attitude like?"

Mr Fitzpatrick: "I think he was quite cocky about it. It was unusual for him to be so cocky but he was so sure, quite adamant about it."

James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, asked Mr Fitzpatrick which psychiatrists had seen Sutcliffe in prison. Mr Fitzpatrick replied that he was not sure, but thought it was Dr Milne and Dr Kane.

Mr Chadwin suggested whatever was said was to the effect that a plea of diminished responsibility would be accepted. Mr Chadwin: "If the word agreement was used I would suggest it was in this context that the doctors had all agreed - is that correct?"

Mr Fitzpatrick: "No."

Mr Fitzpatrick also said that Mr Sutcliffe was: "arrogantly confident that his plea of diminished responsibility would be accepted."

The next witness was Frederick Edwards, an Armley hospital prison officer. He stated that he was supervising Mr Sutcliffe on April 14th. Between 9:00 pm and 10:30 pm Mr Sutcliffe, who was "cheerful and bright" was talking to Mr Edwards. This was just after Mr Sutcliffe's trial had been moved by Leeds Crown Court to the Old Bailey.

Mr Edwards: "He told me he was going to the Old Bailey for his trial and he was very pleased with that news. He was saying to me that the doctors considered him disturbed and he was quite amazed by this and was smiling broadly and leaning back in his chair. He was not protesting that the doctors were wrong about him, he appeared amused. He said to me: 'I am as normal as anyone.'"

Under cross-examination by James Chadwin, QC, for the defence, a prison report was read that stated that Mr Sutcliffe had said that the doctors thought there was something wrong with his mind because he heard God's voice. The report said: "But he said why should he be classed as mad because of this."

After the conclusion of Mr Edwards's evidence, Sir Michael Havers said that the case for the prosecution had finished.

Mr Chadwin said that the recent evidence had to be explored thoroughly. Mr Chadwin: "In all the circumstances I would like your Lordship to postpone the opening of the defence case until Monday morning."

Mr Justice Boreham agreed, and the trial was adjourned until Monday.



(NOTE: Trial source material: Burn, Cross, Jones, Yallop, Daily Telegraph, London (Canada) Free Press, The Times, The Guardian.)



THE TRIAL: WEEK TWO

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