LAST UPDATE | 13 Nov 2020
THE WEST YORKSHIRE police have issued an apology to the relatives of Peter Sutcliffe’s victims for “the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time”.
West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins has issued an apology today, responding to calls from the son of the Yorkshire Ripper’s first recognised victim.
Richard McCann had earlier appealed to West Yorkshire Police to make a formal apology for the way in which his mother and other victims of Sutcliffe were described by officers in the 1970s.
He said he wanted the force “once and for all” to “apologise to the families, who are still around, for the way in which they described some of the women as ‘innocent’, inferring that some were not innocent – including my mum.
“I’d invite them to make that apology,” adding that “it would set the records straight.”
McCann added: “I want her to be remembered as the mother of four children, the daughter of her parents. She was a family woman who, through no fault of her own, was going through adversity and made some bad decisions, some risky decisions.
She paid for those decisions with her life.
In a statement released this afternoon, West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins said: “On behalf of West Yorkshire Police, I apologise for the additional distress and anxiety caused to all relatives by the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time in relation to Peter Sutcliffe’s victims.
Such language and attitudes may have reflected wider societal attitudes of the day, but it was as wrong then as it is now.
“A huge number of officers worked to identify and bring Peter Sutcliffe to justice and it is a shame that their hard work was overshadowed by the language of senior officers used at the time, the effect of which is still felt today by surviving relatives.
“Thankfully those attitudes are consigned to history and our approach today is wholly victim focused, putting them at the centre of everything we do.”
He added: “I offer this heartfelt apology today as the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.”
Condolences to Carl Sutcliffe
McCann said he reached out to the serial killer’s brother “to offer my condolences” after hearing the news of his death.
He was only five years old when his mother, Wilma McCann, was murdered in 1975.
He revealed he had been in touch with one of Peter Sutcliffe’s brothers, Carl, following the news that the murderer had died in prison today.
McCann told the BBC: “I gave him a call when I got the news to offer my condolences.
“Carl Sutcliffe reached out to me many years ago when he read about my journey — he reached out to me with compassion and I felt the same.
“I know he obviously did some horrendous things but he was still his brother so I felt like I wanted to call him.”
He said news of Sutcliffe’s death had brought him “some degree of closure”, but that he had never wished him dead, nor was he celebrating the news.
He said: “Every time we hear a news story about him, and my mum’s photo is often shown, it’s just another reminder of what he did.”
He said “one positive” to come from Sutcliffe’s death is that “we’ll hear much less about him, and no more reminders about what happened all those years ago”.
A mother of four, Wilma McCann was just 28 when she was killed on playing fields in Chapeltown, Leeds, just yards from her home.
Her son said he was left terrified after his mother’s death, and when Sutcliffe killed Jayne MacDonald, who also lived in his street.
McCann said: “I was convinced as a child, having had no therapy of any description, that he was out there and that he was going to kill me.”
He added: “It really affected me. I was ashamed of being associated with Sutcliffe and all his crimes and, possibly, to do with the way that lots of people in society looked down, and the police and some of the media – describing some of the women as innocent and some not so innocent.
“I’m sorry to harp on about this but I’ve had to live with that shame for all these years.
“There’s only one person that should have felt any shame – although I doubt that he did – and that was Peter Sutcliffe.”
Retired detective Roger Parnell, who worked on the Ripper inquiry, rejected accusations the officers “did not care less” about prostitute victims.
He told BBC Radio 5Live: “We certainly did, I can assure you we did.
“These ladies were wives, they were mothers, they were sisters. And the inquiry did not change at the murder of Jayne MacDonald.
“We were all determined from the beginning to catch the perpetrator of all these murders.
“When I heard this morning that Peter Sutcliffe had died, I just could not care less, to be honest.”
Parnell said: “The senior officers at the time …. they just swallowed hook, line and sinker the Wearside Jack tape.
“Many of us, the officers on the ground, the DCs and the sergeants, we didn’t swallow this, to be quite honest.
“We let our thoughts be known but we were ignored.”
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