Yorkshire Ripper victim’s son told photo of mum ‘at last, he’s gone’ after serial killer’s death

THE son of a woman ­murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper looked at her photo yesterday and said: “At last, Mum — he’s gone.”

Neil Jackson, 62, speaks to the snap of mother Emily on his living room wall every day.

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Forty-four years after her death he was finally able to give her the news he had long been praying for.

The Ripper, serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, died in hospital at 1am yesterday aged 74. He succumbed to Covid-19 after refusing treatment.

He was serving a whole-life term for murdering 13 women in Yorkshire and North West England.

Neil said: “My mother can finally rest easy — her tormentor is gone.

“Good riddance to him.

'GOOD RIDDANCE'

“And who’d have thought that coronavirus could produce at least one happy ending?

“But today is not about Sutcliffe’s death. It’s a day for his victims.

“A lot of words are written about him and we have to accept that.

“But the real people who matter in this tragedy are the women he attacked and their families who suffered with them.

“My family and every other family involved are the ones deserving of everyone’s thoughts and sympathies — not that monster.”

Neil was one of scores of relatives across Britain celebrating the news that the monster had died — on Friday the 13th.

Twenty-five children were left without mums after Sutcliffe’s five-year killing spree.

Emily was his second murder victim in January 1976.

The 42-year-old had become a sex worker in Leeds in a desperate attempt to feed her family after their roofing business hit hard times.

Sutcliffe picked her up in Chapeltown and drove her to a deserted industrial estate where he smashed her over the head and stabbed her 52 times.

Neil, of Leeds, clearly remembers the day the police broke the grim news to the family.

He told how he felt she had been murdered all over again when he discovered how she had been earning extra cash.

Neil, who was 17 at the time, said: “I heard about it a few days after she died but I thought it can’t be true — not my mum. Then the police mentioned it a few times and I realised it was true. It broke my heart but I knew she had done it with the best of intentions.”

Neil revealed that the tragedy caused ruptures in his family which never healed.

He said: “There were three kids and we all ended up with different relatives — with only my younger brother staying with dad.

“Dad remarried soon after and there were major fallouts, all caused by the stress of mum’s murder.

“It was like a bomb going off at the heart of our family.

“Sutcliffe didn’t just murder mum, he murdered our family. It was never the same again.

“People read the headlines and think there’s only one victim, the person who has been murdered.

“But there are always more ­victims - Peter Sutcliffe destroyed our entire family.

“As for him, I’ve been waiting for this day for decades.

“If it was down to me it would have come a long time ago.

“They should have brought the death penalty back just for him — it would have saved the taxpayer a lot of money and the families a lot of heartache.

“At times he has been better cared for than I have and from what I’ve heard he used to eat ­better than I ever do. He’s gone now and I can forget about him — but I’ll never forget my mother.”

Sutcliffe killed 13 women and left nine others for dead in a reign of terror starting in 1975. The Ripper was eventually arrested by two bobbies on a routine patrol in Sheffield in 1981.

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey in May 1981 and spent three years in prison before being transferred to Broadmoor Hospital suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

After 32 years he was deemed stable by doctors and moved to top-security HMP Frankland in County Durham in 2016.

Others whose lives were wrecked by the Ripper also told of their delight at his death.

Judith Lowry, whose mum Olive Smelt survived being attacked by Sutcliffe in Halifax in 1975 but died in 2011, said: “It’s a bit of ­closure. I won’t shed a tear.”

Ian Tanfield, 62 — who was engaged to the Ripper’s final victim Jacqueline Hill, who was killed in 1980, said: “There’s no point in going back over this — the only bonus is he’s dead now.”

Geoff Beattie, 51, whose mum Irene Richardson was the Ripper's third victim, said: “It’s an appropriate date for it. I felt relief and more closure than I was expecting.”

Incredibly, Richard McCann, who was five when his mother Wilma was murdered by Sutcliffe in 1975, rang the beast’s brother yesterday to offer his “condolences”.

Mr McCann said: “Carl Sutcliffe reached out to me many years ago when he read about my journey — he reached out to me with compassion and I felt the same.”

PM Boris Johnson said he was thinking of those whose lives had been ruined by the killer whose crimes appalled the nation. Brian Booth, chairman of West Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “The monster who murdered so many innocent women should rot in hell.”

The Sun this week told how Sutcliffe, who became a Jehovah’s Witness behind bars, had refused treatment from doctors.

He had been admitted to hospital with heart problems over a fortnight ago.

But it is understood he became infected with coronavirus after being sent back to jail — where he collapsed.

Sutcliffe’s ex-wife Sonia, 70, was lying low yesterday. She visited him even after they divorced.

She still owns their old marital home in Bradford and a nearby flat where she lives with second husband Michael Woodward.

There was no answer at either address.

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