Ripper defends his 'mission’

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 6

Ripper defends his 'mission’

NZPA London The Yorkshire Ripper duelled with the AttorneyGeneral yesterday in a confrontation that brought Peter Sutcliffe's Old Bailey trial to new heights of drama. For more than three hours Sir Michael Havers, Q.C., icily polite, cross-examined Sutcliffe who says he killed 13 women in a "mission from God" to wipe out prostitutes. Sutcliffe, articulate and speaking in his high-pitched but soft Yorkshire accent, had an answer for every question. He even rebuked Sir Michael over a question suggesting that his "mission” started after he had already developed a hatred for prostitutes. Sir Michael asked: “So God jumped on the bandwaggon after that and says you have a Divine Mission young Peter to stalk prostitutes and avenge me by killing them.” Sutcliffe retaliated: “It is a very colourful speech, sir, but it does not apply.” In another exchange. Sir Michael asked him if, as God's agent, he was having to carry out an impossible task for one man. "Did it occur to you that God is meant to be merciful and you are killing people in a painful way?” Sutcliffe: “I am quite sure that the ways I killed them meant they never knew anything.” Sir Michael: “You mean to say they never felt anything as they were lying there, moaning, groaning, gurgling, a screwdriver in an eye, stabbed and one disembowelled?” Sutcliffe: “They were gurgling but they would riot know anything about it.” He was then asked

whether he had a favourite dog or cat. and Sutcliffe »replied that he had, and “admitted that he would never have killed them in any of the ways he had killed his victims. Sutcliffe, aged 34, a Bradford truck driver, walked jauntily from the dock to the witness box as he was called to give evidence for the second day. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He admits seven charges of attempted murder. The jury has been asked to decided whether Sutcliffe duped doctors into believing he was a paranoid, schizophrenic to avoid murder conviction. Sir Michael asked Sutcliffe to explain why he had never killed in his car. At first he replied: “It was impossible. There was no way at all. I always used a hammer.” Pressed, Sutcliffe said: “Maybe it's because they would make a lot of noise and the evidence would be all over the car.” Sir Michael retorted: “Well done, Mr Sutcliffe. You finally got there. “You have this capacity for control and you knew you would leave blood there. You always checked your clothes and if there was any blood you washed it off.” . Sutcliffe was explaining to the packed No. UCourt how he had to kill when the urge came over him. That he killed his victims in the quietest of places was simply by chance, he said. Sir Michael, swivelling on his heels, stared directly into Sutcliffe’s eyes and snapped: "You are saying that it just

happened by chance. “Are you saying that if the urge came over you in the middle of Piccadilly you would have done it then?” Sutcliffe: “Yes, that’s what I said.” Waving in front of him a yellow-handled screwdriver, bent at the end, Sir Michael asked why he had jabbed it into Jacqueline Hill's open eye. Sutcliffe paused for an unusually long time. Sir Michael: "It's difficult for you. isn’t it?” Sutcliffe: "Yes.” Sir Michael: "Because you are not quite sure what is the right answer to give to the jury and the doctors.” Sutcliffe: “You’re much quicker than I am. sir.” Several times Sir Michael accused Sutcliffe of deliberately lying. He said that after his arrest “for a considerable time you lied and lied and lied again.” Sutcliffe agreed. The jury was reminded of an occasion when Sutcliffe told his wife that he would have to spend 30 years in prison unless he could convince people he was mad and get "10 years in a loony bin.” Sutcliffe told the Court he did not really know whether he would spend a shorter time in a mental hospital. It was “sheer invention.” Counsel, Mr James Chadwin, Q.C., asked Sutcliffe if he believed he was insane. "Nothing serious at all, no,” Sutcliffe replied. He also denied that he concocted a story about a "divine mission" to kill prostitutes because he hoped it would get him a shorter sentence. “There would be something wrong with me mentally if I thought that.”