Straw rules out releasing Ripper

Mr Straw said there was nothing in the evidence he had seen which would lead the authorities to free the serial killer who is serving 20 life sentences at Broadmoor Hospital, in Berkshire.

At justice questions in the Commons yesterday Tory Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove) said a constituent's relative was among Sutcliffe's victims and wanted reassurance "he will never be let out of prison for his heinous crimes".

Mr Straw told her: "I would like to provide that reassurance ... ultimately that decision would be a matter for the parole board and the courts and maybe for mental health tribunals.

"But I say to you – and through you to your constituent – that all the evidence that I have seen on this case, and it's a great deal, suggests to me that there are no circumstances in which this man will be released."

Sutcliffe was convicted at the Old Bailey in London in 1981 for the murder of 13 women, and seven counts of attempted murder after a five-and-a-half year killing spree in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Now known as Peter Coonan, the 63-year-old has begun a legal process to set a limit on the time he spends in custody. He was transferred to Broadmoor in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

But the High Court was told earlier this month he could have a case for overturning his convictions, on the basis that psychiatrists treating him unanimously agree he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killings and should have been allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter.

His trial judge at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Boreham, recommended he serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars, which will end next year, but no minimum prison term for him has ever formally been set.