Reign of the Ripper: How his terror engulfed Yorkshire

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June 2, 1946 - Peter Sutcliffe is born in Bingley, West Yorkshire.

After leaving school at 15, he takes a series of jobs, including grave digger and salesman.

August 10, 1974: Sutcliffe marries wife Sonia.

Summer 1975 - Less than a year later, he begins attacking women - two in Keighley and one in Halifax. All three survive and police do not link the attacks.

October 30 1975 - Sutcliffe carries out his first fatal attack on Wilma McCann, a 28-year-old prostitute from the Chapeltown district of Leeds.

January 20 1976 - He murders Emily Jackson, 42, from Leeds, battering her with a hammer and stabbing her with a screwdriver.

February 5 1977 - He kills Irene Richardson, 28, another prostitute from Leeds.

April 23 1977 - Sutcliffe strikes for the first time in his home town of Bradford, murdering 32-year-old Patricia Atkinson.

June 26 1977 - The case comes to the attention of the national press after Sutcliffe murders Jayne MacDonald, a 16-year-old shop assistant. The murder, and the realisation that a serial killer is on the loose in Yorkshire, shocks the country.

The attacker is dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, and West Yorkshire Chief Constable Ronald Gregory appoints his most senior detective, Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, to investigate.

October 1 1977 - Sutcliffe chooses Manchester for his next attack - on Jean Jordan, 20. He dumps her body on an allotment and throws her bag, containing a brand-new 5 note he gave her, into nearby shrubs.

Police find the bag and trace the serial number on the note back to the payroll of Yorkshire hauliers T and W H Clark, who employ Peter Sutcliffe.

Sutcliffe is interviewed by police but provides an alibi placing him at a party.

January 21 to May 16 1978 - Sutcliffe murders three prostitutes - Yvonne Pearson, 21, from Bradford; Helen Rytka, 18, from Huddersfield, and 40-year-old Vera Millward from Manchester.

April 4 1979 - Sutcliffe kills Halifax Building Society clerk Josephine Whitaker, 19.

June 1979 - A tape is sent to police by a man calling himself Jack the Ripper, who has already sent a series of hand-written letters from Sunderland. Assistant Chief Constable Oldfield mistakenly decides that these are the work of the Ripper. Wearside Jack, as he becomes known, is pinpointed to the Castletown district of Sunderland by voice experts. Detectives are told they can discount suspects who do not have a Wearside accent.

July 1979 - Police interview Sutcliffe for the fifth time. Det Cons Andrew Laptew and Graham Greenwood are suspicious but their report is filed because his voice and handwriting do not fit the letters and tape.

September 2 1979: Sutcliffe murders Barbara Leach, 20, in Bradford.

August 20 1980 - The Ripper claims another victim, Marguerite Walls, 47, from Leeds, followed by Jacqueline Hill, 20, a Leeds University student, on November 17.

November 1980 - Det Ch Supt James Hobson replaces Oldfield. Hobson downgrades the importance of the Wearside Jack tape and letters.

January 3 1981 - Sutcliffe admits he is the Yorkshire Ripper after police arrest him with a prostitute. Police admit the killer does not have a Wearside accent.

May 22 1981 - Sutcliffe is jailed for life at the Old Bailey after saying he was hearing "voices from God" to go on a mission to rid the streets of prostitutes. The judge recommends a minimum sentence of 30 years. He is transferred to Broadmoor secure hospital in Berkshire in 1984.

March 21 2006 - John Humble, a former builder, is sentenced to eight years in prison after he admits to being the Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer known as Wearside Jack.

June 1 2006 - A report kept secret for nearly 25 years reveals that Sutcliffe probably committed more crimes than the 13 murders and seven attempted murders for which he was convicted.

July 16 2010 - Sutcliffe learns the outcome of his plea not to have to spend the rest of his life behind bars.