Top police officer haunted by Ripper failures dies aged 88

Mr Gregory, who was from three generations of policemen, served for 42 years, having joined in 1941 in his home town of Preston. He was appointed chief constable in West Yorkshire in 1969 and oversaw the merger of the Leeds and Bradford city forces with the old county force.

He won large sums of money to modernise and re-equip the force and took the radical step of arming and training large numbers of officers, anticipating the surge in armed violence in the 1970s.

But his career will always be linked to the flawed six-year hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and he attracted national condemnation after selling his memoirs to a national newspaper for a reputed 40,000 following his retirement.

The move led to accusations from relatives of Ripper victims he had taken "blood money", while then Home Secretary Leon Brittan branded it "deplorable".

Yesterday West Yorkshire's current chief constable Sir Norman Bettison said: "Ronald Gregory was chief constable for 14 years and his time at the helm of the police service in West Yorkshire coincided with some of the most significant challenges faced by the force.

"He was a man respected for his professional commitment and resilience."

Mr Gregory robustly defended the force's Ripper investigation, claiming criticisms were made with the benefit of hindsight.

He was blamed for taking the decision to release the notorious tape of "Wearside Jack" who claimed responsibility for the killings which proved to be a hoax. The culprit John Humble, from Sunderland, was eventually jailed in 2006.

Sutcliffe was arrested by officers from another force in Sheffield in 1981. When the news broke, Mr Gregory was among the beaming officers who appeared at the so-called "laughing policeman" Press conference, prompting claims the subsequent coverage could jeopardise Sutcliffe's trial where he was convicted of the murders of 13 women and attempting to murder seven others..

It later emerged Sutcliffe had been questioned nine times during the course of the investigation. An official inquiry found it had missed several vital clues which could have led to his earlier arrest and the major incident room failed to cope with the weight of information it received.

In his final annual report in 1983, Mr Gregory said: "The Ripper is a thorn in my career. I wish we could have caught him earlier. But I know the men on the case could not have worked any harder."

He said he delayed his retirement until the Ripper case was cleared up.