30 September 2023 , 11:35
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The son of the Yorkshire Ripper’s second victim has defended a new ITV drama saying “at last the victims’ voices are being heard”.
He hit back after the brother of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe accused the series of cashing in on the murders. Carl Sutcliffe said it was just dragging up "painful memories". But Neil Jackson, whose mum was battered to death by the Yorkshire Ripper, said: “To me he’s wrong in what he’s saying, it’s nothing to do with him.
“It’s the families who are suffering and it’s about time our voice was heard.” Neil said the only problem he had with the series was that it wrongly suggested it was his mum’s idea to become a sex worker – when it was his dad’s. Neil said: “It makes my dad look far more innocent than he was. I just want to protect my mam’s memory because she was a joyful woman who would do anything for anybody.”
The programme covers the final moments of his mum, Emily Jackson. In the drama, hard-up Emily suggests the idea of becoming a sex worker to her husband, telling him she could earn £5 for having sex for five minutes. Her son Neil, from Leeds, is full of praise for Katherine Kelly, who plays his mum but is upset about their version of events.
Emily's son Neil Jackson (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)“She’s an amazing actress. She’s got a similar face and similar hairstyle and the same smile," he told the Mirror. “But there’s a scene where she hits my dad Sydney, played by Daniel Mays. I had to laugh at that because she gives him a good slap but that used to be the other way round.
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"And it wasn’t her idea to go on the game – it was dad who forced her." His 42-year-old mum was killed in January 1976, three months after the Ripper’s first murder. He picked her up in a car outside a pub and drove her to an industrial estate where he pretended his engine had failed.
As she stood over the bonnet with a torch, he battered her with a hammer. The series, which details the police investigation into the 13 murders carried out by Sutcliffe between 1975 and 1980, focuses on the victims. The first episode of the seven-part series, which was released on Monday, followed the tragic final days of Wilma McCann and Emily, the Ripper’s first two known victims.
Neil, 65, from Leeds, said he could see the pain of having to go out on the streets of Leeds in his mum's eyes. “It was because of the financial times we were in and there was a bill that came in, a gas or electric bill. There were three of us kids at the time and times were hard. But it was dad’s idea to go on the game. But in the show it’s the other way round. I want to make sure the record is correct."
Emily Jackson (Mirrorpix)
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe (Getty Images)About the drama overall, he said: “Some of it was horrible to watch but it was amazing and it did take me back in time.” He recalled how his dad, Sydney, was a roofer who went out most nights with his wife. “I didn’t realise what she was doing until years after. She was out six nights a week with dad. I thought they were out having a drink," he remembers.
“They always went together. That’s why I think it was his idea. If he was in one of his moods you’d keep away. He didn’t hit me but he did hit mam. I think they’ve painted him a little bit too nice. I was the oldest so I saw more than most. The rows I remember were always about money. He’d slap her. She was a lovely mam and I wish she was here now.”
He was 17 when the police knocked on the door several months after his mum had become a sex worker. “I was due to go to work, I worked for dad. I just thought mam had gone to pick one of the lads up to drive the van. Dad hated driving, didn't have the patience for it.
“But the police came and told us to sit down and told us mam had been murdered. They then took dad down to the police station and myself down to Millgarth police station. We were there for the biggest part of the day. I was really shocked at the time. Dad was on one floor and he was on another being asked questions. I think we were both under suspicion.”
After her death Neil recalls how his relationship with his dad deteriorated and the family was torn apart. His younger sister, who was five, went to live with an aunt, while his brother, aged around nine at the time, stayed with his dad. Neil joined the army two months later.
“Dad was even more bad tempered over it. He went into a depression,’ he said. "As I always say about Sutcliffe, he didn’t just kill mam, he killed the whole family. It left me arguing with dad, me not speaking to my brother and sister. Sadly, 45 years on and the damage is still there.”
Sydney died in 2007. Sutcliffe, a lorry driver from Bradford, was finally arrested on January 2, 1981 He was sentenced to 20 life sentences for murdering 13 women and the attempted murder of seven more. He died in November 2020 aged 74 after catching Covid behind bars.
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