'I couldn't stop,' Ripper trial told Sutcliffe says he was a beast

The Globe and Mail (Canada)

May 7, 1981 Thursday

Copyright 1981 The Globe and Mail, a division of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved

Length: 596 words

Byline: AP
Dateline: London ENGLAND

Body

LONDON (AP) - Peter Sutcliffe, who has admitted killing 13 women in the string of so-called Yorkshire Ripper
slayings, confessed to being a 'beast' with an obsession for killing prostitutes, a jury at London's Old Bailey was
told yesterday.

'I would have gone on and on; it was like some sort of drug,' Mr. Sutcliffe said after his arrest last Jan. 2 in a
statement to police that was read in court by Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers.

The soft-spoken, bearded Sutcliffe, from Bradford, in northern England,

pleaded guilty to 13 counts of manslaughter when the trial opened last
Thursday. He said he should not be charged with murder, because of
'diminished responsibility,' or lack of mental competence.

The case was adjourned until this week so a jury could be formed to
decide whether Mr. Sutcliffe is a 'paranoiac schizophrenic,' as
psychiatrists determined, or merely trying to avoid a murder conviction.

Mr. Sutcliffe also has admitted to seven failed attempts to kill women.

In the statement about the five-year reign of terror across northern

England, Mr. Sutcliffe was asked whether he remembered the names of the
women he killed.

According to the chief prosecutor, Sir Michael, Mr. Sutcliffe replied:

'They are all in my brain, reminding me of what a beast I am. I could not
stop myself.'
The killing of 16-year-old Jayne Macdonald in June, 1977, was 'the one
I still feel terrible about,' Mr. Sutcliffe said in his statement. 'I
realized what a monster I had become. I thought she was a prostitute.'
Miss Macdonald was the youngest of the victims and one of five non-prostitutes killed. Eight of the 13 victims
were prostitutes.

According to a statement Mr. Sutcliffe made to the police, he killed

his first victim, prostitute Wilma McCann, because she taunted him
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'I couldn't stop,' Ripper trial told Sutcliffe says he was a beast

sexually.

Mr. Sutcliffe told police that it was when he killed the last of the
prostitutes, Vera Millward, that he realized 'I now had an urge to kill
any woman.'
At that point Sir Michael broke off from the statement, turned and told
the jury this was a 'key sentence,' as it was not what Mr. Sutcliffe had
told doctors.
'He told them he believed throughout that his victims were all
prostitutes,' Sir Michael said.

The court was given gruesome details of each of the killings, which
invariably included stabbings, lacerations and hammer blows to the head.

Mr. Sutcliffe was expressionless as Sir Michael described the attack on

20-year-old university student Jacqueline Hill, Nov. 17, 1980 - the last
killing. Sir Michael said the victim's body had been mutilated with a
hammer and chisel or screwdriver.

Mr. Sutcliffe was quoted as telling police: 'I pulled Miss Hill's
clothes off. Her eye was wide open and she seemed to be looking at me with
an accusing stare. This shook me up a bit so I jabbed a screwdriver in her
eye.'

The name Yorkshire Ripper recalls the Victorian killer, Jack the
Ripper, who murdered and mutilated six prostitutes in London's grimy East
End but was never caught.

Mr. Sutcliffe, Sir Michael said, had sexual relations with only one of
his victims. He was having no sex problems at home despite having frequent
fights with his wife Sonia, he said.

The court was told earlier that Mr. Sutcliffe told doctors after his
arrest that he was directed by God to go on a mission to kill prostitutes.
Psychiatrist Hugo Milne, who saw Mr. Sutcliffe 11 times, concluded that he
had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for many years, the court was
told.

In a way typical with his illness, the doctor said, Mr. Sutcliffe
believed God was sending him messages in many ways.

Classification

Language: ENGLISH
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'I couldn't stop,' Ripper trial told Sutcliffe says he was a beast

Publication-Type: Newspaper

Subject: MURDER (92%); ADMISSIONS & CONFESSIONS (91%); HOMICIDE (90%); JURY TRIALS (90%);
NEGATIVE PERSONAL NEWS (90%); CRIME, LAW ENFORCEMENT & CORRECTIONS (89%); ARRESTS
(78%); GUILTY PLEAS (78%); INSANITY DEFENSE (78%); MANSLAUGHTER (78%); STABBINGS (78%);
VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER (78%); CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS (77%); LAW COURTS & TRIBUNALS (77%);
PUBLIC PROSECUTORS (77%); SCHIZOPHRENIA (76%); LAWYERS (74%); MENTAL HEALTH (74%);
PSYCHIATRY (73%); ATTORNEYS GENERAL (70%); HEAD INJURIES (70%); MENTAL ILLNESS (69%); CUTS
& ABRASIONS (60%); murders (%)

Industry: LAWYERS (74%); PSYCHIATRY (73%); PUBLISHING (73%)

Geographic: LONDON, ENGLAND (89%); BRADFORD, ENGLAND (79%); ENGLAND (92%)

Load-Date: January 12, 2007

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