Son of Ripper victim's story inspires film

Richard McCann was five years old when his mother Wilma was murdered by Peter Sutcliffe, on playing fields close to the family’s home in Leeds.

The mother of four had been killed while her children slept, and Mr McMann and his sister, who had gone out looking for her in the early hours after she failed to return home, walked past her body.

He endured a troubled up-bringing in the years after her death, he said, brought up by a hard-drinking and often violent father who, while he loved the children, struggled as a parent. He also spent time in prison after being arrested for drug-dealing.

Now a movie is to be made about how the 47-year-old father of three overcame his turbulent childhood to become a successful motivational speaker and bestselling author.

“I’m thrilled for this to happen,” he said. “It’s a good film – only about 15 per cent accurate – but it’s a great thing to be happening. It’s like the books, and when I speak, it impacts on people. It means my mum’s death wasn’t in vain.”

Mrs McCann was 28 when she was killed on October 30, 1975, Mr McCann says it impacted greatly on his life and that of his older 
sister Sonia, who took her own life at the age of 37.

“It’s always been a part of my life,” he said. “Because of mum dying, because of the way she died, and the media interest that came afterwards, I felt like I was the one that was damaged. It really messed me up as a kid.

“I felt I was really looked down on. I heard neighbours, when others were killed, saying they deserved everything they got.

“It wasn’t the impact of mum’s death, or the case, that stayed with me. It was the impact of society, and how they looked down at these women, and at us.

“Even now, walking down the street, I feel different to everybody else. It has left a scar. I’ve stopped trying to eradicate ‘this thing’. I’ve got a wound that will always be there. It’s about finding ways to cope and manage that.”

After leaving prison, Mr McCann had vowed to turn his life around. It was public speaking that gave him the voice, and the platform, to take back control.

From prison, he had always been able to see the white tower at Leeds University, and on his release he enrolled. And he no longer feels anger towards Peter Sutcliffe, he says.

“I decided I had to let it go,” he said. “I’m the person that feels the anger – he doesn’t. Sonia and I once concocted a plan, to befriend him as a pen-pal. She was going to visit him, and kill him. That was in the early 90s.

“I used to hate it when The Yorkshire Post put a picture of him on the front page. I no longer feel that way. I let it go.”

He has now given more than 2,000 talks, and runs an academy on motivational speaking. He is a bestselling author, and a screenplay has been written for the film, Just a Boy.

He says facing his fears head on is how he deals with the dice he’s been thrown.

Last week he held 44 motivational talks in one day, raising £2,700 towards a £4,444 target for the Samaritans.

“People ask how I can speak openly, or write about what happened,” he said. “Nothing can be as bad as losing my mum to Peter Sutcliffe. It puts it all in perspective.”