The Ripper: Netflix documentary criticised for treatment of Peter Sutcliffe’s sex-worker victims

Critic said Sutcliffe had initially targeted ‘a certain kind of woman following a certain kind of lifestyle’

Netflix’s true crime documentary The Ripper has been criticised for comments made about the Yorkshire Ripper’s victims who were sex workers.

Dropping on the streaming service on Wednesday (16 December), the four-part series tells the stories of the 13 young women who were murdered by Peter Sutcliffe from 1975 to 1980.

In the first episode of the series, Yorkshire Post journalist Alan Whitehouse describes how Sutcliffe’s fifth murder, that of 16-year-old Jayne McDonald, was the one that prompted national interest in the case.

Discussing McDonald, who Sutcliffe followed home from her supermarket job, Whitehouse called the four sex workers who were killed by Sutcliffe “chip paper murders”.

“This was the moment when West Yorkshire Police themselves were pulled up a little bit short, because until now they’d been dealing with a certain kind of woman following a certain kind of lifestyle,” he said.

“A perfectly innocent girl, from a very ordinary family, is dead.'  

The comment frustrated viewers, with one commenting: “Sat watching The Ripper on Netflix and I am DISGUSTED how people view female sex workers, as if that makes them unimportant due to how they make a living? Sad to see that not much has changed since the 70s cos women are still degraded due to working in the sex industry.”

“Watching #theripper [on] Netflix & listening to the way the press & police are talking about these women is making my blood boil!” another wrote. “They were ALL INNOCENT WOMEN. Doesn't matter what they did for a living. They were INNOCENT WOMEN.”

“Watching Netflix's #TheRipper and the way the police talks about prostitutes just p***es me off to my core,” one viewer wrote. “Women with that kind of ‘lifestyle’ that word alone triggers me but like wtf as if it's a choice?! Having sex because you want to feed your children is not a lifestyle.”

Another viewer took particular issue with the commentator’s use of the term “innocents” to describe Sutcliffe’s victims who weren’t sex workers, adding: “They’re all f***ing innocent!”

The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment.

Earlier this week, families of the victims accused the documentary of “glorifying” Sutcliffe.

Sutcliffe died in November aged 74 after testing positive for coronavirus.

The Ripper is available to watch on Netflix now.