PETER SUTCLIFFE, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, will never be released from prison, the BBC reports. Sutcliffe, 63, had applied for a minimum term to be set so he would have a chance of parole, but a High Court judge has ruled against it. He is serving a 20-year sentence for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder a further seven.

The judge said: “Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims.” He murdered the women between 1975 and 1980.

Richard McCann, the son of one of Sutcliffe’s victim’s, Wilma McCann, said the judge’s decision was a “small victory” for his mother, and for years his family had feared Sutcliffe’s release. Sutcliffe was sentenced and imprisoned in 1981, after an extensive police operation which had originally ruled him out as a suspect.

Police were led on a wild goose chase during their investigations by tapes and letters sent by people claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper, such as this one: