Accused ''Ripper'' says God told him to kill

United Press International

May 11, 1981, Monday, AM cycle

Copyright 1981 U.P.I.

Section: International
Length: 431 words
Byline: By MICHAEL DENNIGAN
Dateline: LONDON

Body

Peter Sutcliffe told a hushed courtroom at the Old Bailey Monday the ''voice of God'' turned him into the ''Yorkshire
Ripper'' who killed and mutilated 13 women on a divine mission to destroy prostitutes.

In sometimes mumbled and faltering testimony, Sutcliffe, 34, said he first heard the the voice while he a was
gravedigger in northern England in 1967 and that he received ''hundreds of messages'' in following years.

''I believed then and I believe now it had been the voice of God,'' Sutcliffe said during his three hours and 25
minutes of testimony.

Sutcliffe repeatedly told the court he was sent to kill by the voice and while he did not like what he was doing ''it was
the voice of God and God must be right.''

The defense, seeking a reduced charge of manslaughter because of insanity, put Sutcliffe in the witness box on the
fifth day of his trial.

The prosecution claims Sutcliffe invented the voices to get a lighter sentence. 3P:tP59P3wred of the murder of 13
women he faces a mandatory life sentence.

Under questioning by defense lawyer James Chadwin, Sutcliffe told the jury of six men and six women that when he
first heard the voice while digging a grave in 1967 ''I experienced a fantastic feeling … I felt that for some reason I
had been chosen to hear the words of God.''

Sutcliffe said the voice at first helped him out of periods of depression but that it started urging him to kill prostitutes
in 1969 when the girl who was to become his wife, Sonia, was briefly dating another man.

He said he picked up a prostitute to try to cure his depression, but she cheated him of $22 and the voice began
telling him prostitutes ''were the cause of all my troubles.''

''It was the same voice and I had hundreds of messages,'' Sutcliffe said. ''It was to remove the prostitutes and get
rid of them.''

The defendant testified that he resisted for five year the voice's urgings to quit his night job at a factory so he could
''carry on the mission.''
 Page 2 of 2
Accused ''Ripper'' says God told him to kill

But Sutcliffe said the ''trigger'' came in mid-1975 when a co-worker told him of an influx of prostitutes in the local
town of Keighley.

The attempted murder of Anna Rogulsky, 39, in Keighley in July 1975 was the first of the five-year series of attacks
against women by the ''Yorkshire Ripper'' that lasted until November 1980.

Sutcliffe said the fact he was questioned during the Ripper investigation and not arrested convinced him that he
was protected by God.

''Everything was in God's hands, the way I escaped, the way they went away satisfied with everything There was no
chance of them catching me,'' he said rocking gently side to side.

Classification
Language: ENGLISH

Subject: TESTIMONY (90%); ARRESTS (89%); MURDER (89%); NEGATIVE PERSONAL NEWS (89%);
INVESTIGATIONS (87%); SENTENCING (78%); WITNESSES (78%); GENDER BASED VIOLENCE (77%); JURY
TRIALS (77%); MANSLAUGHTER (77%); PROSTITUTION (77%); WOMEN (77%); CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
(72%); LAWYERS (71%)

Industry: LAWYERS (71%)

Geographic: LONDON, ENGLAND (59%); ENGLAND (74%)

End of Document