'A small victory' for victims as Ripper is told he will die in jail

The serial killer of 13 women must serve a whole-life tariff, said Mr Justice Mitting, announcing his decision at the High Court in London.

His judgment was welcomed by Richard McCann, whose mother Wilma was one of the victims of Sutcliffe's reign of terror.

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr McCann said that for many years he had feared Sutcliffe might be released, but now felt a sense of relief at the decision.

He described it as a "small victory for my mum" and the other victims.

In his ruling. Mr Justice Mitting said: "This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years.

"The only explanation for it, on the jury's verdict, was anger, hatred and obsession.

"Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Those circumstances alone make it appropriate to set a whole life term."

Now known as Peter Coonan, the former lorry driver, 64, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981.

He received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The judge said he had read statements by relatives of six murdered victims: "They are moving accounts of the great loss and widespread and permanent harm to the living caused by six of his crimes.

"I have no doubt that they are representative of the unspoken accounts of others who have not made statements.

"None of them suggest any term other than a whole life term would be regarded by them as appropriate."

He said he had no doubt that the "appropriate minimum term is a whole life term".

Sutcliffe is in Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

It was on 5 July 1975, 11 months after his marriage, that he took a hammer and carried out his first attack on a woman.

Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes - though not all his victims were sex workers - and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.

"The very clear impression which I have is that this case comes right at the top of the range of cases in which the Home Secretary has set a whole-life tariff," Mr Justice Mitting said.

"Only Rosemary West and Dennis Nilsen approach the number of victims murdered."

A report by Dr Kevin Murray, the psychiatrist who has been in charge of Sutcliffe's care since 2001, revealed that in July 1993 the killer was started on anti-psychotic medicine and "has persevered with it ever since".

The judge said Sutcliffe had "thrice been the subject of assaults, two of them serious".

In the second assault, his right eye was put out and the third was an unsuccessful attempt to put out his left eye, said the judge.

Asked about Sutcliffe showing remorse, Mr McCann said: "I would argue strongly against that. Four or five years ago I wrote to Peter Sutcliffe to give him the opportunity of showing some remorse. I felt some remorse from him would help me.

"He did not take me up on the opportunity."