Yorkshire Ripper victim's poignant plea for police to reopen unsolved cases
A victim of the Yorkshire Ripper hopes that a new TV drama will “embarrass” police into probing unsolved cases linked to the fiend.
Mo Lea, who was attacked by depraved Peter Sutcliffe in 1980, believes ITV’s The Long Shadow will reignite public interest in the serial killer – and force officers to act. Sutcliffe was convicted of killing 13 women and attempting to murder seven others at his 1981 trial.
But a subsequent report warned Sutcliffe, who died aged 74 in 2020, could have been behind more than a dozen other murders and sex attacks. Seven-part drama The Long Shadow, starring Toby Jones, David Morrissey, Lee Ingleby and Katherine Kelly, is due to hit screens on September 25.
Toby Jones (left) plays DCS Dennis Hoban and Lee Ingleby portrays his colleague DCS Jim Hobson in the drama (ITV)And it will expose failings in what became the biggest manhunt in British criminal history, spanning five years. Artist Mo, 63, says screwdriver-wielding Sutcliffe attacked her when she was a student in Leeds but he was never convicted.
She said: “We know now from parliamentary reports that there were other victims but these cases have never been acted upon because West Yorkshire Police wanted to save face.
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“I’ve been told the show is very critical of the police and showed how they missed so many opportunities. That is a story that needs to be told because it is important to show what happens when the police don’t do their job right.”
Mo claims the police officers of the time were “sexist and misogynistic” and “devalued” Sutcliffe’s victims – several of whom were sex workers.
She added: “Hopefully, the show might embarrass the force into looking again at all cases linked to Sutcliffe.” The 1982 Byford report, made public in 2006, said it was “highly improbable” that Sutcliffe was only guilty of the crimes he was convicted of.
Cops search land near the serial killer’s home in 1981 (PA)In 2017, it emerged that police spoke to Sutcliffe in jail about 16 unsolved attacks but did not quiz him about any murders. No further charges were ever brought.
But Mo, from Bedford, is adamant that Sutcliffe “killed and attacked many more women”. She said: “The police were given the gift of a 400-page report to help them solve Sutcliffe’s other crimes.
“But the report, to this day, sits in the parliamentary library gathering dust. The show will have a high profile – it’s going to be hugely embarrassing for the police. The best thing that can come out of it will be them making right their mistakes and going back over other crimes linked to Sutcliffe.”
Other cases linked to Sutcliffe include that of Gloria Wood, who was hit with a claw hammer on a school field in Bradford in 1974. Investigative journalist Chris Clark linked Sutcliffe to 23 murders in his 2015 book, Yorkshire Ripper – The Secret Murders. Wilma McCann, 28, was the first woman known to have been killed by him in October 1975.
But Clark believes Fred Craven, 66, was Sutcliffe’s first kill. The bookmaker was found dead at his shop in Bingley, West Yorks, in 1966. Neil Jackson, whose mum Emily was killed by Sutcliffe in 1976, also believes there are more victims. He previously said: “Back then, there was no DNA, CCTV, com-puters… I’m convinced there are more.”
Peter Sutcliffe, pictured in 2016, went on a heinous crime spree for at least five years (Collect Unknown)Detectives leading the original investigation repeatedly disparaged the sex workers killed by Sutcliffe and differentiated between them and the “innocent women” he murdered.
After Sutcliffe’s death, West Yorkshire Police apologised to victims’ families and survivors for the “additional distress and anxiety caused by the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time”.
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Paul Whittington, the co-founder of New Pictures – which is producing The Long Shadow – insists the show will focus on Sutcliffe’s victims, not him.
He said: “This is a story about class prejudice, pervasive and entrenched sexism and women simply not being heard that still has relevance today.”
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