Who are the UK’s worst serial killers? From Peter Sutcliffe and Dennis Nilsen to Harold Shipman

FROM twisted killer Dennis Nilsen, notorious for stuffing body parts down drains to Peter Sutcliffe, who anonymously terrorised Yorkshire for five years, we take a look at the UK's worst killers.

One murderer was even responsible of the deaths of up 260 people.

Dennis Nilsen

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Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets.

He strangled or drowned them before having sex with their corpses between 1978 and 1983.

Nilsen, of Fraserburgh in Scotland, is Britain's second worst serial killer behind Shipman.

Nilsen, who was convicted of six murders and two attempted murders, was only caught when plumbers found human remains blocking the drain of his London flat.

Depraved Nilsen - who would never have been released after being sentenced to a whole life term - was serving his sentence at maximum security HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire when he died on May 12, 2018.

Peter Sutcliffe

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In the late 70s, Yorkshire was gripped by a terrifying wave of women being violently attacked and murdered.

Dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper by the press, Peter Sutcliffe's crimes took place over a five year period between 1975 and 1980.

He was convicted for the murder of 13 women, and attempting to kill seven others.

The Ripper regularly used prostitutes in Leeds and the nearby areas, and his violence was thought to have been sparked after he was swindled out of money by a prostitute and her pimp.

He told police that God had sent him on a mission to kill prostitutes, and in his trial he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminished responsibility, after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Sutcliffe could have murdered eight more women, a top cop has claimed.

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Former police chief Keith Hellawell, who got Sutcliffe to confess to two unsolved attempted murders, said he believes the sick serial killer could be behind more crimes.

In 2017 The Sun revealed Sutcliffe, 70, had been quizzed in jail by detectives investigating 17 unsolved attacks.

The crimes are said to bear similarities to the 13 gruesome murders and seven attempted murders he was caged for which saw him wield hammers, screwdrivers and knives.

The 71-year-old was jailed  in 1981, after police caught him with a 24-year-old prostitute called Olivia Reivers on January 2.

Police realised his car had false number plates and arrested him.

Officers soon noticed that he shared many physical characteristics with the Yorkshire Ripper.

The following day police returned to the scene of Sutcliffe's arrest - where they found a knife, hammer and rope which the killer had dumped the previous day.

After two days of intensive questioning, Sutcliffe finally admitted he was the Yorkshire Ripper.

On October 29 2020, Sutcliffe was treated at University Hospital of North Durham - three miles from the maximum security HMP Frankland jail where he was an inmate - after suffering a suspected heart attack.

He then tested positive for coronavirus after leaving hospital, with reports claiming that he was refusing treatment.

Harold Shipman

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Harold Shipman is still the only British doctor to have been found guilty of murdering his patients.

Born January 14, 1946, Harold Frederick Shipman was a British GP who was one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history.

On January 31, 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of fifteen murders for killing patients under his care, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Shipman died in his cell at Wakefield prison, one day prior to his 58th birthday.

The Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.

ITV documentary Harold Shipman: Doctor Death focused on the case and subsequent investigation that saw Shipman convicted of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery.

However, Shipman is believed to have killed up to 260 people between 1975 and 1998.

Angus Sinclair

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Angus Robertson Sinclair is a Scottish serial killer who raped and strangled his female victims.

Born in 1945, he carried out numerous acts of rape, sexual assault and murder from the age of 16.

In 1970, after getting out of prison for murdering an eight-year-old girl, he married trainee nurse Sarah Hamilton, who gave birth to their son two years later.

In 2014 Sinclair's case made legal history when he was jailed for a minimum of 37 years for the murder of two teenage girls four decades before.

The jail term was the longest handed out by a Scottish court, and means Sinclair will be 106 by the time he is eligible for parole.

The chilling name of the "World's End murders" is derived from the name of the pub where his victims, Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, were last seen leaving at closing time on the night of October 15, 1977.

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Hillwalkers discovered Christine's naked body in Gosford Bay, East Lothian, the following day, while Helen's body was found six miles away.

Both girls had been beaten, gagged, tied, raped and strangled.

A hunt for the murderer ensued, but police were unable to trace any suspects, but Sinclair was finally discovered by police in November 2004, when cops detained him in Edinburgh.

After mouth swabs were taken for analysis, he was arrested and charged with the murder and rape of the two girls.

During the 2007 trial, Sinclair pleaded not guilty to murder and rape and was later acquitted due to lack of evidence, and only in 2014 did the victims' families receive justice.

Sinclair was eventually convicted of murdering four girls and women, but detectives believe he could have killed many more, as after the conclusion of the World's End Murders trial it was revealed that he was already a convicted murderer and serial sex offender, and was actively serving two life sentences at HMP Peterhead when his case was brought forward.

He died aged 73 in the early hours of March 11, 2019, at Glenochil prison in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.