Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, is likely to be told that he will never be freed when he is given the minimum term he must serve for the murder of 13 women. He has instructed lawyers to apply to the High Court for a tariff – the minimum term – to be set for the first time since he was jailed in 1981.

Sutcliffe, who has changed his name to Peter Coonan, is currently held under mental health laws in Broadmoor top-security psychiatric hospital near Crowthorne, Berkshire. He was given 20 life sentences at the Old Bailey for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven more across Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

The trial judge recommended that he serve a minimum 30 years but a formal tariff was never set. At that time tariffs were set by the Home Secretary after receiving advice from the trial judge and the Lord Chief Justice. Since then the law has changed and tariffs are set by the judiciary alone. The judges have also been given a set of starting points for minimum terms for murderers.

Sutcliffe, 62, was transferred to Broadmoor in 1984 after paranoid schizophrenia was diagnosed. He has instructed Bindmans, a firm of solicitors in London noted for their human rights work, to deal with his tariff. A statement from Bindmans said: “Any prisoner is entitled to have a tariff set within a reasonable time of conviction which will set out the minimum term of imprisonment to be served.”

The firm declined to say if Sutcliffe is to argue that he is sane and can be transferred back into the prison system or whether his human rights have been breached because of the failure to set a tariff. However, it is unlikely that Sutcliffe will receive anything other than a whole-life tariff, meaning that he will die either in a top-security psychiatric hospital or in jail.

The High Court will set the tariff under rules laid down in 2003, which set out the criteria for a whole-life tariff if the court considers that the seriousness of the offences is exceptionally high. It would normally be imposed if two or more persons were murdered, where each murder involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning, if the victim was abducted or there was sexual or sadistic conduct. One source said: “He would appear to fit the criteria.”

Olive Smelt survived after Sutcliffe attacked her with a hammer as she returned to her home in Halifax after a night out in 1975. Her husband, Harry, said: “He didn’t give the victims many human rights did he?”

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said that she found it difficult to see how Sutcliffe could be freed. “Top of my list of priorities, I have to say, is not Peter Sutcliffe’s rights, it’s the rights of those people who were his victims, and how we keep this country safe.”

James Welch, legal director of Liberty, said it was established law that all life prisoners should know the minimum amount of time they must remain in prison. “If there is uncertainty in this case, it is in everyone’s interest that this is rectified,” he said. “Prisoners use any argument available to them, but the courts’ role is to weigh these arguments against the interests of victims and society as a whole.”

More than 35 offenders have been told that they will die in jail, including Rose West, convicted of ten murders, Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, and Dennis Nilsen, who killed six men.

Trail of a murderer

— The largest police taskforce in history was assembled in the hunt for Sutcliffe, but he managed to evade capture for more than five years

— The police collected a quarter of a million names of possible suspects and took more than 30,000 witness statements during their investigation

— Most of Sutcliffe’s victims were prostitutes and more than a million car number plates seen in red light districts across the north were logged

— Sutcliffe himself was spotted 60 times picking up or talking to prostitutes and was interviewed and released by police on nine occasions before his eventual arrest

— Two hoax letters and a cassette tape sent to police and purporting to be from the Ripper sparked 50,000 calls from the public, all of which were followed up by police

— George Oldfield, the officer in charge of the police operation, suffered three heart attacks during the hunt. He died four years after Sutcliffe was arrested, aged 61

— Sutcliffe was finally caught in January 1981 after police on a routine patrol found him with a prostitute. They discovered he had attached false number plates to his car and detained him for further investigation, which eventually revealed his identity

Source: Times archive; Crime Library

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