Peter Sutcliffe Research Paper

On January 2, 1981, Peter Sutcliffe’s killing spree was finally brought to an end. Officers of the Sheffield Police Department in South Yorkshire caught Sutcliffe in a car with fake license plates. He had a prostitute, 24-year-old Olivia Reivers, in the car with him when he was caught. The police arrested him and he was brought to the Dewsbury Police Station. While in custody, the police questioned Sutcliffe about the Yorkshire Ripper case, since he looked similar to the drawing of the killer (Sohrabi-Shiraz). The next day, officers returned to the place where Sutcliffe had been arrested. They found a hammer, rope, and knife nearby. Sutcliffe had hidden them from the officers before he was arrested by saying he was “busting to go to the toilet.”

Police found he had a V-neck sweater pulled up over his legs, with the neck hole exposing his genitals. Police questioned Sutcliffe for two days until January 4, 1981, when he confessed that he was the Yorkshire Ripper. Sutcliffe then described all his attacks and murders to the cops and was charged with thirteen counts of murder on January 5 (Rosewood and Lo 371). At trial, Peter Sutcliffe plead not guilty to murder but plead guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility. Sutcliffe said he was told by God and other voices to murder prostitutes. However, the judge ruled that Sutcliffe would have to be tried for murder. The jury found him guilty of 13 counts of murder, along with Sutcliffe pleading guilty to seven counts of attempted murder. Sutcliffe received life imprisonment with a minimum of 30 years and was sent to Parkhurst Prison (Neal). After serving three years at Parkhurst, Sutcliffe was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder that explained his hearing voices - paranoid schizophrenia (SC 8). Accordingly, he was then sent to a Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital (BE 7). In 2010, one year before his minimum of 30 years served would have come, a whole-life tariff changed his sentencing to ensure he would spend his entire life in prison. Then in 2016 he was diagnosed as no longer schizophrenic and was transferred to HMP Frankland