Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe launched proceedings today aimed at overturning a British judge's decision last month ordering that he should never be released.
Mr Justice Mitting announced his decision in London on July 16th, ruling that the serial killer of 13 women must serve a “whole life” tariff.
A spokeswoman for the Judicial Communications Office confirmed today that he has started appeal moves. “I can now confirm that an application for leave to appeal the whole life order by Mr Justice Mitting has been lodged with the Court of Appeal,” she said.
Now known as Peter Coonan, the former lorry driver, now 64, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981. Sutcliffe received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
Mr Justice Mitting, when giving his ruling, said Sutcliffe had caused “widespread and permanent harm” to the living. “This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years,” he said. “The only explanation for it, on the jury’s verdict, was anger, hatred and obsession.
“Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term.”
Sutcliffe is being held in Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a “mission from God” to kill prostitutes - although not all of his victims were sex workers - and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.
A report from Dr Kevin Murray, the psychiatrist who has been in charge of Sutcliffe’s care since 2001, revealed that in July 1993 the killer started taking anti-psychotic medicine and “has persevered with it ever since”.
Dr Murray said in a 2006 report that he now posed a "low risk of reoffending".
John Stainthorpe, a former detective superintendent at West Yorkshire Police who worked on the case, said last month the judge had made the right decision.
"I don't think we should take a chance with a man like Sutcliffe," he added. "The man is thoroughly evil."
Agencies