09 October 2023 , 19:00
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Irene Richardson was just 28 years old when she was brutally murdered by Peter Sutcliffe in February 1977. She had been a sex worker in Leeds when she became his third victim.
Tragically, her long-lost son only discovered her devastating fate when he went searching for his birth mum - meaning that he never got the chance to ever meet her. George Beattie, from St Helens in Merseyside, had been adopted soon after he was born and is determined to find everything he could about Irene.
George, 54, said that he was left "devastated" after making the discovery on the internet 19 years ago while trying to find her for medical reasons.
"Not only had she been murdered, but to suddenly be associated with everything else that had gone on, I can't describe it. I was devastated," he explained. After the discovery, George decided to make a trip to Cowper Street, in the Chapeltown area of Leeds, where she once lived," he said in 2012. "But if I can build up a picture of her life and the person she was, that will complete that picture of her."
Twelve of the thirteen victims of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper (PA)He had hoped to speak to anyone who could remember his mum, saying: "I know there are people out there who will remember mum and have had good times with mum. I know there's more to her life than just those last couple of weeks, and certainly more to it than the end that everybody knows about. I want to know the person. I want to know my mum."
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Irene had worked as a cleaner for the YMCA, but financial struggles left her living in toilets at the time of her death. She had initially grown up in Glasgow, but went on to move to Blackpool, London and then Leeds. After discovering more details about her past, George said that he believed his mum did the "right thing" to put him into care.
Following Sutcliffe's death in 2020, George said: "When I found out on Friday morning my first thought was it's good he's gone because there are a lot of people who might now get peace, comfort, closure. I realised I needed that too. I didn't think that emotional impact was still there. It was a very emotional day but it did help me deal with it."
He added: "He had that opportunity to meet her and because of that I never could. He has stolen from me and from everybody else."