Video: Gag lifted as 'low risk' Yorkshire Ripper begins bid for freedom

A High Court judge set up a hearing to decide the minimum term he must remain in custody before parole can be considered.

During today's preliminary proceedings, it became clear that a whole-life tariff is among the options under consideration for Sutcliffe, currently held in a top security psychiatric hospital.

Mr Justice Mitting, sitting in London, was told that the killer, now 63, wished to attend the tariff-setting hearing in person.

Now known as Peter Coonan, the lorry driver from Bradford was convicted at the Old Bailey in London in 1981 for the murder of 13 women, and seven counts of attempted murder, in Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

It was said at his trial he believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes, although not all of his victims were prostitutes.

He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screw driver and a knife.

The trial jury rejected his claim of diminished responsibility and found him guilty of murder.

Today Mr Justice Mitting, giving directions for the pending hearing, said: "A tariff will be set. Indeed it is long overdue."

Lifting an existing court order giving Sutcliffe anonymity, he ruled: "The press are at liberty to report the fact that these proceedings concern Peter Sutcliffe/Peter Coonan."

The tariff is the minimum term a convicted criminal must serve for the purposes of retribution and deterrence before becoming eligible for release on licence.

The Prime Minister said in February last year it was "very unlikely" Sutcliffe would be released.

Today the court heard that Justice Secretary Jack Straw was submitting cases for the tariff hearing in which whole-life terms had been set.

The judge indicated that "about 20 other cases might be relevant".

Sutcliffe is currently being held in Broadmoor in Berkshire after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

At today's preliminary hearing, the judge rejected a call on Sutcliffe's behalf for fresh medical evidence about his psychiatric state at the time he committed his crimes to be considered as part of the tariff-setting exercise.

The court heard that Sutcliffe's treating doctor at Broadmoor, Kevin Murray, believed the killer should never have been convicted of murder because of mental illness.

But the judge said his report dealing with those issues was not admissible with regard to the length of the tariff, but could be considered in relation to his post-sentence conduct.

The treatment prescribed to Sutcliffe "has had in Dr Murray's view very considerable success", said the judge.

Since 1993 he had been "relatively responsive to treatment", leading to a conclusion that "so long as treatment continues he should be regarded as posing a low risk of re-offending".

It was on July 5, 1975, just 11 months after his marriage, that Sutcliffe took a hammer and made his first attack on a woman.

He has spent nearly all of his years in captivity at Broadmoor after being diagnosed as mentally ill, but refused treatment until 1993 when the Mental Health Commission ruled it should be given forcibly.

Sutcliffe, who was continuously referred to in court as Coonan, was given 20 life sentences for the killings, which took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr Justice Boreham, the trial judge, recommended a tariff of 30 years, and the then Lord Chief Justice advised 35 years, but no tariff was formally set.

At that time tariffs were decided by the Home Secretary, after receiving advice from the trial judge and the Lord Chief Justice.

Since then the law has changed and tariffs are now decided by judges alone, and Sutcliffe instructed lawyers to apply for a tariff-setting hearing.

Mr Justice Mitting said it would not be appropriate to allow the relatives of any of Sutcliffe's victims to address the court at the tariff hearing, though all were free to attend.

"It is not appropriate in a minimum-term setting exercise - in particular one that, for understandable reasons, has attracted over the years such media attention as this case."

The judge said a whole day should be set aside for the hearing and directed that it be held in public, unless the judge fixing the tariff decided that any part of it should be heard in private.

Paul Bowen, appearing for Sutcliffe, told the court that his client currently wished to attend the hearing.

The judge said: "If he wishes to exercise that right arrangements must be set in place in good time to permit him to do so, but he is not required to attend."

The victim's view: No woman would feel safe

Releasing Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, from prison would be "taking a risk", the husband of one of his surviving victims said today.

Olive Smelt was attacked with a hammer by Sutcliffe in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in the summer of 1975.

Mrs Smelt, who is now 80, still lives in the Halifax area with her 85-year-old husband, Harry.

Commenting on the news of Sutcliffe's bid to have a tariff set on his sentence, Mr Smelt said it would probably mean more danger for Sutcliffe than the public.

"I think it's taking a risk", he said. "If he was out on the streets I think there would be a lot of people who would love to be the one to say they got Peter Sutcliffe."

When asked if he or his wife would be afraid if Sutcliffe was let out of prison, Mr Smelt said: "Do you know, we don't even give him a thought now.

"It's 35 years ago now that he attacked Olive.

"We're both knocking on now, so they say, and we live in flats and are quite secure and not worried about opening the door to strangers.

"We wouldn't be afraid."

Anthony Wild, who attempted a citizen's arrest of Sutcliffe's solicitor Kerry MacGill, said the evidence to show Sutcliffe had murdered was enough to keep him behind bars.

He added that if Sutcliffe was released he would make women in the region feel threatened.

"I don't think any woman in Yorkshire would feel safe," he said, "regardless of what he's like now.

"I certainly would suggest they keep him in forever, they should keep him inside for the rest of his days."

Next page: His life and crimes Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, murdered 13 women and tried to kill seven more over a period of five years.

The lorry driver, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was eventually arrested and jailed for life in 1981.

As Sutcliffe begins a legal bid for freedom, here are the details of his life and crimes:

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

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

August 10, 1974: Sutcliffe marries wife Sonia.

July 5, 1975: Less than a year after his marriage, Sutcliffe attacks his first known victim, 36-year-old Anna Rogulskyj, in Keighley, West Yorkshire. His victim is struck unconscious with a hammer and her stomach is slashed with a knife but she survives after her attacker is disturbed by a neighbour.

August 1975: Olive Smelt is attacked in Halifax, West Yorkshire. She is also attacked with a hammer and knife and survives after Sutcliffe is interrupted. He later confesses that he attacked a third woman during this period for which he was not convicted.

Police do not link these first attacks.

October 30, 1975: Sutcliffe carries out his first fatal attack on Wilma McCann, a 28-year-old prostitute and mother-of-four from the Chapeltown district of Leeds. His victim is struck with a hammer and stabbed several times.

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

May 9, 1976: Marcella Claxton, 20, survives after Sutcliffe attacks her with a hammer in Roundhay Park, Leeds.

February 5, 1977: He kills Irene Richardson, 28, another prostitute from Leeds, who is bludgeoned to death with a hammer.

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 his youngest victim, 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald, who is not a prostitute, in Chapeltown, Leeds. The murder of the young girl, and the realisation that a serial killer is on the loose in Yorkshire, shocks the country.

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

July 1977: Maureen Long, 42, is seriously assaulted in Bradford but survives after Sutcliffe is interrupted.

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 one of many men interviewed by police but he provides an alibi placing him at a party.

December 14, 1977: Another prostitute, 25-year-old Marilyn Moore is attacked in Leeds but survives.

January 1978: Sutcliffe murders two more prostitutes - Yvonne Pearson, 21, from Bradford, and 18-year-old Helen Rytka, from Huddersfield.

May 16, 1978: Another prostitute, 40-year-old Vera Millward, from Manchester, falls victim to the Ripper.

April 4, 1979: Nearly a year after his last murder, Sutcliffe kills Halifax Building Society clerk Josephine Whitaker, 19.

July 1979: Police interview Sutcliffe for the fifth time but, despite the suspicions of the interviewing detectives, no further action is taken because his voice and handwriting do not match letters and a tape sent to police by a Sunderland man - known as Wearside Jack - claiming to be responsible for the crimes.

Detectives have been told they can discount suspects who do not have a Wearside accent.

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

August 20, 1980: The Ripper claims another victim, Marguerite Walls, 47, from Leeds.

September 24, 1980: Sutcliffe attacks 34-year-old Dr Upadhya Bandara, in Leeds, followed by 16-year-old Theresa Sykes, in Huddersfield, on November 5. Both survive.

November 17, 1980: The Ripper's final murder victim is 20-year-old Leeds University student Jacqueline Hill.

January 3, 1981: Sutcliffe is arrested with prostitute Olivia Reivers, 24, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Police approach the couple in a car and run checks on its number plates - discovering it is stolen. Sutcliffe is taken in for questioning and police later find a ball-pein hammer and a knife near where he was held.

He later admits to being the Yorkshire Ripper.

May 22, 1981: Sutcliffe is given 20 life sentences and is told by the judge at the Old Bailey that he will serve a minimum of 30 years. He claimed at his trial that he had heard "voices from God" telling him to rid the streets of prostitutes.

March 1984: Sutcliffe is transferred to Broadmoor secure hospital, Berkshire, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

February 10, 2005: West Yorkshire Police say Sutcliffe confessed to attacking two more women after being jailed for life for his killing spree.

June 1, 2006: A report which has been 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.

December 2007: Sutcliffe is attacked with a cutlery knife by a fellow inmate in Broadmoor.

May 2008: Sutcliffe instructs a top legal team to use human rights legislation to establish the minimum time he must serve behind bars.

March 1, 2010: Sutcliffe, who is now known as Peter Coonan, launches an application at the High Court in London to decide the minimum term he must remain in custody before parole can be considered.