Ripper-hunt story row

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 10

Ripper-hunt story row

NZPA London The police chief who led the hunt for the mass murderer known as the Yorkshire Ripper launched his memoirs of the case in a newspaper yesterday, generating more protests from victims’ families and from the killer’s wife. The “Mail on Sunday” went ahead with the series by the retired West Yorkshire Chief Constable, Ronald Gregory. Among the protesters are Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of Peter Sutcliffe who was

convicted of the crimes; Doreen Hill, whose 20-year-old student daughter, Jacqueline, was the killer’s thirteenth and last victim, and the family of the youngest victim, Jayne McDonald, who was 16. Sutcliffe was given life imprisonment in May, 1981, for 13 murders of women and seven more attempted murders. His killings in northern England cities lasted from October, 1975, to November, 1980. Mrs Hill disclosed that the Home Office had joined

in the controversy sparked by news media reports that Mr Gregory was receiving between £40,000 and £50,000 ($93,000 to $117,000) for his account of the manhunt. An unidentified civil servant at the Home Office, in a letter to Mrs Hill reportedly backed by the new Home Secretary, Mr Leon Brittan, expressed official disapproval of Mr Gregory’s memoirs. He said that the former police chief’s action had brought no credit on the police.