Yorkshire Ripper 'probably' committed more crimes

A report from 1982 reveals that the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, probably committed more crimes than the 13 murders and seven attempted murders of which he was convicted.

An inquiry into the West Yorkshire Police investigation said there was an "unexplained lull", in Sutcliffe's activities between 1969 - when he first came to the police's attention - and the first Ripper assault in 1975.

The details came in a report by the former inspector of constabulary Sir Lawrence Byford, parts of which have just been released under freedom of information legislation. Sir Lawrence said it was unlikely that Sutcliffe's only crimes were those of which he was convicted, and that a number of assaults on women since 1969 clearly fell into his "overall modus operandi".

The report's main findings were published by the then Home Secretary William Whitelaw, but yesterday's publication reveals bungles including delays in following up tip-offs from Trevor Birdsall, a friend of Sutcliffe's since 1966.

A letter sent to police by Mr Birdsall on 25 November 1980, in which he named Sutcliffe, was the fourth time he had come to the police's attention, but the papers remained in a filing tray until his arrest on 2 January the following year. Mr Birdsall visited Bradford police station the day after to express further misgivings. A report on this visit was lost.

Officers who interviewed Sutcliffe also failed to examine his car - the tyres would have linked him to Irene Richardson's death nine months before.