Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe bonds with child killer Ian Huntley over David Attenborough’s BBC show Planet Earth II
The pair, who murdered 15 people between them, claim to have formed a friendship after 'watching a lot of documentaries together about animals'
THE Yorkshire Ripper has a new best pal in jail — Soham killer Ian Huntley.
Peter Sutcliffe, 70, says he and the evil caretaker have become bosom buddies — over a shared love of BBC nature show Planet Earth II.
Sutcliffe says he and his new best friend are huge fans of David Attenborough’s hit programme and have long chats about it — even though he is almost completely blind.
And the ex-school caretaker is now said to be helping him find his way around the prison wing.
Sutcliffe told a source: “Ian’s really friendly and helpful.
“I wouldn’t go back to Broadmoor if they gave me a million pounds.
“We’ve started watching a lot of documentaries together about animals in the wild.
“There’s 100 inmates on this wing, that’s where Ian Huntley is — and he’s friendly, you know.
“They’ve all been OK, pretty friendly and helpful.
“It’s fine here — you couldn’t pay me to go back to Broadmoor.”
Yet despite his love of Planet Earth, Sutcliffe told the source that, as a Jehovah’s Witness, he does not believe in evolution.
He said: “I’m not keen on David Attenborough as a person because he’s an atheist.
“He doesn’t believe in God, he believes in evolution — and that just can’t happen.”
Sutcliffe, given 20 life terms in 1981 for murdering 13 women and trying to kill seven more, entered Frankland in Durham in August after 32 years in Broadmoor.
It came after a tribunal ruled his paranoid schizophrenia had been successfully treated.
Huntley, 42, is serving two life terms with a minimum of 40 years for the 2002 murders of ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambs.
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Peter Sutcliffe
AGE: 70
CRIMES: 13 murders, seven more attempted.
STREET JUSTICE: Sutcliffe lost the sight in his left eye in a 1997 attack in Broadmoor.
In 2007 another patient tried to blind him in his right eye.
After his conviction he was revealed as a serial paedophile and rapist who had been investigated eight times over sex crimes.
Like most criminals Sutcliffe hates child sex offenders — but he has made an exception for Huntley.
The source said: “It’s ironic because paedophiles are the only type of crook that Sutcliffe has ever had a problem with.
“Sutcliffe has always kept his distance from them, but he was so desperate for friends after his transfer to Frankland he made an exception for one of the most high profile beasts in the country.” The Ripper, serving a whole life tariff which means he will never be released, lost the sight in his left eye when stabbed with a pen by another Broadmoor patient in 1997.
And he has been gradually losing the sight in his right eye due to a condition linked to diabetes.
He can no longer read penpals’ letters and relies on a trusted prisoner to read them to him.
Now using his mum’s maiden surname Coonan, he also struggles to walk around as he can see only vague shapes like doorways.
Huntley will also be delighted to have a pal as he has been hated at every jail that has held him.
The pervert — who once boasted of bedding 60 schoolgirls — was attacked in Belmarsh Prison in 2004 weeks after being convicted.
Ian Huntley
AGE: 42
CRIMES: Two murders. Also probed over sex crimes eight times, but never faced justice.
STREET JUSTICE: Punched in Belmarsh Prison and stabbed with a home-made knife in Frankland.
He had been kept in segregation in the hospital wing.
But another prisoner being taken to the unit saw him playing cards and landed a “massive blow” to his head that nearly knocked him off his chair.
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