Ripper report reveals list of errors

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 11

Ripper report reveals list of errors

NZPA London Some of the Yorkshire Ripper’s victims might have been saved if the police had linked certain information early in the series of killings, it was admitted yesterday. A report by Chief Constable Colin Sampson, now head of the West Yorkshire Police, lists a catalogue of errors in the police handling of the five-year hunt for Peter Sutcliffe. The West Yorkshire force was working under-strength for most of the time and had to cope with demands on resources “without precedent in modern policing,’’ says the report. But the most damning section relates to a photofit picture which bore a remarkable resemblance to Sutcliffe. The report says that if the police had concentrated more on the photofit, which had been compiled by one of the Ripper’s victims who had survived, Sutcliffe might have been arrested in 1977. The photofit picture was compiled in 1977 by Marilyn Moore, one of the Ripper’s victims who survived. The report suggests that

if the police had placed more emphasis on that description Sutcliffe would have been a candidate for arrest in 1977. But it took another three years and six more murders before he was finally caught. The report says: “It is difficult to understand, even recognising that the benefit of hindsight exists, why certain cases were excluded from being possibly connected and, while publicity was given to the description of Moore’s attacker, little weight was given to this, aspect during the investigation.”

The 30,000-word report by Mr Sampson comes after an investigation into the West Yorkshire force’s handling of the hunt for the Ripper. Sutcliffe was convicted of the murder of 13 women and also admitted attacking seven others. The West Yorkshire police committee authorised the publication of a “summary” of the report yesterday. The decision came after publication of the memoirs of Ronald Gregory, the former Chief Constable, in a Sunday newspaper. One of the biggest errors which the police made was to place total belief in the now famous “Geordie tape” which taunted the police for their inability to catch him. The Geordie accent and samples of handwriting were used to eliminate suspects. It is now known that whoever made the tape was not the killer — but Sutcliffe had been eliminated from the inquiry specifically on handwriting. The report shows that Sutcliffe was interviewed in connection with the murders on nine separate occasions, and vital information was not connected.