Ripper ‘will never be freed’

THE notorious crimes committed by Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe — who is never to be released — were described as being at the “extreme end of horror” by top judges yesterday.

The Lord Chief Justice in Britain, and two other Court of Appeal judges, dismissed an appeal by the serial killer against an order that he must serve a “whole life” term.

Sutcliffe, now 64, received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester after being convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981.

Rejecting his challenge against a High Court judge’s decision last year that he can never be freed, the chief justice yesterday said an examination of the “entire catalogue of the offences as a whole demonstrates that this was criminal conduct at the extreme end of horror”.

Lord Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams declared that the interests of justice required “nothing less” than a whole life order.

Sutcliffe was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated the bodies of his victims using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.