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13th Nov 2020

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has died after contracting Covid-19

Jade Hayden

He was responsible for the deaths of at least 13 women.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has died after contracting Covid-19.

The 74 year old was found guilty of the murders of 13 women in the 1970s and ’80s. He was sentenced to 2o life terms in prison for the murders and the attempted murder of seven others.

According to reports, Sutcliffe had refused treatment for Covid at a hospital near the maximum security Frankland prison where he resided.

He was admitted to hospital following a heart attack two weeks ago. He was diagnosed with coronavirus after being discharged. Sutcliffe’s cause of death is not yet known.

“HMP Frankland prisoner Peter Coonan (born Sutcliffe) died in hospital on 13 November,” reads a statement. “The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”

Sutcliffe was born in west Yorkshire in 1946. His first attack occurred in 1969 when he hit a woman from behind with a rock.

He committed multiple other non-fatal attacks against women before murdering Wilma McCann in 1975. Sutcliffe went on to kill several other women before he was arrested on drink driving charges in 1980. He killed two more women while awaiting trial.

Upon sentencing, Justice Boreham said Sutcliffe’s crimes had left parts of Yorkshire living in the “deepest fear.”

“The jury have found you guilty of thirteen charges of murder, if I may say so, murder of a very cowardly nature. For each was a woman,” he said.

“It was murder by getting behind her and beating her on the head with a hammer from behind.

“It is difficult to find 108 words that are adequate in my judgment to describe the brutality and gravity of these offences and I say at once I am not going to pause to seek those words. I am prepared to let the catalogue of crimes speak for itself.”

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