MPs attack Yorkshire Ripper freedom bid

TORY MPs have reacted with fury to the news that the Yorkshire Ripper has launched a bid for freedom.

Shipley MP Philip Davies warned it would be “completely unjust” if Peter Sutcliffe was allowed out of jail, 29 years after he was convicted of 13 murders and seven other attempted murders.

Mr Davies tabled a Commons motion opposing his legal battle for parole after it emerged Sutcliffe could even have a case for overturning his conviction.

Psychiatrists treating Sutcliffe unanimously agree he was wrongfully convicted because he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killings, the High Court heard as Sutcliffe asked a judge to set a date from which he would be eligible for parole.

Top judge Mr Justice Mitting said the assessment meant Sutcliffe might have grounds for his case to be considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the independent body which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice.

But Mr Davies said in a motion which was backed by two other Tory MPs: “It would be completely unjust for this serial killer not to remain in prison for the whole of his life.”

He added that the families of those Sutcliffe murdered and his other victims “were handed life sentences by him”.

Sutcliffe, now known as Peter Coonan, was convicted at the Old Bailey of 13 counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder after going on a five-and-a-half-year killing spree in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Trial judge Mr Justice Boreham recommended he serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars – a period that will end next year.