It’s a strange life
So the Yorkshire Ripper is up at court trying to find out a date when he will be elligible for parole & subsequent release.
Back in May 2008, I reported that Peter Sutcliffe would be seeking his release once he had served 30 years. Sutcliffe, the country’s third most prolific serial killer of the 20th century, was given TWENTY life sentences for 13 murders & 7 attempted murders back in 1981.
I can remember, as a young probationer, like everyone else in the country, devouring information in the daily papers on the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. We used to share papers around the canteen as we chomped our egg, bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomato, peas & chips on an early turn in the days when every nick had a canteen.
Sutcliffe’s legal team are pushing to get a parole date, doubtless the ‘Human Rights’ words will be used. It seems strange that even in the most humane of societies that anyone can believe someone who savagely murders 13 people could ever again be considered for release. If ever there was a case where life should mena life, surely this is it?
Richard Ford, of the Times, isn’t convinced Sutcliffe is any nearer to release, opining that he has several barriers in his way, not least of which is convincing a mental health tribunal that he is no longer ‘mental’. It would be hard to believe that someone who is driven to murder or try to murder 20 people could ever be ‘right in the head’. And then he will have to convince the parole board that he is no longer a risk to the public. Given the amount of people they have found to be ‘of no further risk’ who they’ve released only to see them murder again, I’m not convinced this one will pose such a difficult barrier.
I suspect there is more news to come on this story. I, for one, hope Mr Ford is correct.
shijuro says:
I hope he is not released, a serious sexual killer like Sutcliffe will kill again.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Hogday says:
Not wishing to diminish the seriousness of this post, but I was minded of the following anecdote. HM Queen was visiting a secure psychiatric unit and security was tight. As she toured the grounds she was struck by the sheer beauty and perfection of the flower beds. Introduced to the `head gardener` she was told he was the longest serving patient. Asking him many questions about his work, he replied that he realised he had been a danger in the past, but with the treatment he received he now had nothing but thoughts of peace, tranquility and the beauty of nature. HMQ told him she was so touched by his skill and his honest and rational manner she was going to speak to the Home Secretary about a review of his detention. She shook his hand and walked off with the entourage. Suddenly, she was felled by a mighty blow from a garden spade, wielded by the gardener. As she came round, seeing stars, she heard him say, “Don’t forget about the Home Secretary, will you ma`am”?
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Hogday says:
My final sentence should have said, Moral: when there is doubt, there is risk.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
pc hawkeye says:
If the life sentances had been consectutive, there wouldn’t be this worry and £110,000 of tax payers money wouldn’t be winging its way towards his legal teams pockets.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Fee says:
pc hawkeye beat me to it – I was going to say that multiple sentences should always run consecutively, not concurrently. That way, he’d be in no doubt that the rest of his life would be spent behind bars so that the rest of the population would be safe from him.
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Tony F says:
I would prefer that he had been hung. There is no way that he will be safe to have in any community.
I suspect the ‘human rights’ people will get him out somehow. He’ll then attempt to kill again. Then of course ‘lessons will be learned’ only they won’t.
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Ex-RUC says:
Of course poor Mr Ripper should get a date for release – how about 1 April 3050?
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:40 pm
36 years to 200 weeks formerly THE Gutsy Kid Detective says:
Hang on, everybody deserves due process. If he is eligible for such revision of his sentence then we should embrace it as part of the process of keeping Britain safe. Yes, he should be kept in jail for what I have read in the papers recently – but if he HAS been reformed, if he is able to be moved into a less secure prison or whatever, then he most likely should be.
I find it strange however that you are many of you are calling what he did inhuman, and that his punishment wasn’t harsh enough. But where were those cries when those responsible for over 30,000 deaths in Bhopal? Why spend so much time discussing one man, when an entire company is responsible for the deaths of so many due to negligence?
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Tony F says:
36 years to 200 weeks formerly THE Gutsy Kid Detective, good point, well presented. I would have sent them into Bhopal and made them clean their mess up.
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 pm
bill says:
Yes, Gutsy kid is right. Let’s take the focus off our home grown serial killers and concentrate on crimes committed outside our borders.
Gutsy, you’re on the way to the top.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:15 pm
36 years to 200 weeks formerly THE Gutsy Kid Detective says:
Yes, because a British company has never committed a crime /sarcasm
Corporate crime deals more damage to the population of the UK than the Yorkshire Ripper has and will ever do. Bhopal was an extreme case of a Western company which also operated in the UK harming thousands of people to keep prices low here and on the mainland and the States. It’s a wide spread problem.
Look at the States: FBI says burglary alone accounts for $3.8 billion loss to people – yet auto repair fraud by itself cost $40 billion in 2006.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:41 pm
a n other says:
With no rudeness intended, do you honestly think that the security considerations of a person like this can ever be relaxed. To be frank I don’t. There comes a cutaway point where public (and other prisoner) protection has to take priority over the need for due process. I would imagine we have all dealt with recidivist criminals who have been convicted of numerous rape/gbh type offences who are arrested for similar crimes. At some point we should say enough is enough. He had his chance, he killed multiple women, surely where he is is the best place for us all.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:57 am
Shijuro says:
May I ask about the rights of his future victims?
Never mind bleating on about due process – have you forgotten what he did ? Stabbing women with a screwdriver? Beating then with a hammer? Now he is all better?
Please…
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 am
36 years to 200 weeks formerly THE Gutsy Kid Detective says:
I never said he should be released. I think he should stay in prison, preferably for the rest of his life. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t follow due process.
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:30 pm
stone park says:
Should we alarm the public? I hope that this would not cause any trouble.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:45 am