I thought 'God, what have I done?'... I realized I would be in serious trouble. I thought the best way out of the mess was to make sure she could not tell anybody.

The letters signed "Jack The Ripper" claimed responsibility for the murder of 26-year-old Joan Harrison in Preston in November 1975. When arrested in January 1981 for driving with false number-plates police questioned him about the killings and he confessed that he was the man they were seeking. On 23 February 1996 Sutcliffe was attacked in his private room in the Henley Ward of Broadmoor Hospital.

Sutcliffe was a regular user of prostitutes in Leeds and Bradford. At his trial he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminiPeter Sutcliffed responsibility as he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but his plea was dismissed. Nevertheless serious criticism was confirmed in the 2006 Byford Report of the official enquiry.