THE Yorkshire Ripper

The bloated ripper (see the
News of the World paper for exclusive pictures)

Yorkshire pudding

By Matt Slater

THE Yorkshire Ripper has turned into the Incredible Hulk, thanks to slap-up meals and a cushy life inside Broadmoor.

The last picture taken of serial psycho Peter Sutcliffe 10 years ago showed a muscular figure with neatly trimmed jet black hair and distinctive goatee beard.

But today, in a sensational series of exclusive pictures, the News of the World reveals how he then sat back and pigged out—ballooning into a balding 17-stone slob. It is all part of an attempt to disguise himself in a chilling bid for freedom.

Inside the forbidding walls of Broadmoor mental hospital, where he is serving 20 life sentences for hacking 13 women to death and trying to murder seven more, a sweaty Sutcliffe patted his huge belly and bragged: "This is because I eat so well in here and spend a lot of time just watching TV and painting.

"It's not a bad life at all and I'm really into my cooking these days. Last week I cooked a juicy steak as big as a dinner plate with chips and mushrooms—it was delicious.

"Now I want to make lobster thermidor—they won't have a problem with that."

Mask

The hospital authorities might not mind but the British public will be outraged. For Sutcliffe, 58, also:

BOASTS how his bloated new look will mask his identity and allow him to slip unnoticed on to Britain's streets in just six years' time,

CROWS about plans to win back ex-wife Sonia, work as a chef and set up a secret new life,

VOWS he will never apologise to his victims' families,

TRUMPETS a string of misguided female pen-pal ‘groupies' who will get a "visit" from him one day, and

SPOUTS sick so-called jokes about mass murder.

Sutcliffe's incredible outpouring came in a meeting with his younger brother Carl at high-security Broadmoor in Berkshire.

Carl, 40, was stunned at how the monster had piled on the pounds. It's a far cry from the toned body and looks, right, he used to parade.

Today the buttons on his blue cotton shirt struggle to contain his bulk. His cream chinos bulge under the strain and he tries to cover a large bald spot at the front of his head with strands of greying hair.

The only thing that hasn't changed is the cold-blooded stare of a fiend who held Britain in the grip of terror for six years.

Eerily the Ripper smiled as he revealed his plan to walk free from Broadmoor, where he has been held since 1984.

"I'm sorting out an appeal to get out of here," he told Carl. "I'll change the way I look and go to another country. Hopefully with Sonia. I'm up to 17 stone now and even starting to lose my hair. That could come off and I'll alter my appearance with a bit of surgery."

He added: "I fancy a little village somewhere in Italy or the South of France. I can maybe do a bit of cooking in a restaurant." Then terrifyingly, he pledged: "I'll walk free in six years. That will be 30 years inside, the minimum I had to serve. I can't wait."

Switching to his new passion for food, Sutcliffe told Carl: "We get cookery lessons a couple of times a week. We can have any ingredients we want. I'm getting really good and the amount of food we get is huge.

"Last week was the steak. Next I want them to bring in lobster. It all shows I'm being rehabilitated, that I can act like a normal person.

"It's just one of the ways I'll be able to prove that I'm sane now and should be allowed out of here."

That will terrify a generation of women who walked in fear during the Ripper's reign of mayhem.

Lorry driver Sutcliffe—an ex-gravedigger who says he was told to murder prostitutes by "voices"—launched a mission to slaughter vice girls in 1974 after being taunted by one in a pub near his home in Bradford.

As the body count mounted, Britain shuddered. Sutcliffe's methods were horrific—he'd smash his victim's skull with a hammer then stab them with screwdrivers and knives.

After each murder he returned home to hide his weapons and remove possible clues before climbing into bed with Sonia. When he was caught and jailed in 1981 it made headline news around the world.

But 24 years later Sutcliffe put on an amazing show of arrogance as he declared to his astonished brother: "I don't think people will be that bothered about me getting out. It was a long time ago and I think people will have moved on. They won't have much of a problem with me, although you might get the odd person having a go."

Sutcliffe still bears the marks from one attack—stabbed in the eye and blinded with a pen by fellow Broadmoor inmate, killer Ian Kay.

The Ripper's podgy new features have now stretched the huge scar, leaving the left side of his face deformed and bulging.

Although the Ripper's room is just 100 yards from the visitors' area at Broadmoor, he struggled for breath during the short walk and smelled of body odour from heavy sweating.

But despite his appearance he revelled in talking about the women who write to him. And he claimed ex-wife Sonia, now married to businessman Michael Woodward after her 1994 divorce, is also in touch and makes the occasional visit.

Sutcliffe is so confident Sonia still cares for him he has made plans for them to reunite and move abroad.

He claimed: "Sonia writes every few weeks. I still love her. She'd be the only woman for me. We're still really good friends and I want to spend my dying days with her.

"I have quite a few women who write to me and it's nice that they care. I'll visit them when I get out."

Then Sutcliffe detailed his plan to secure freedom, exploiting what he sees as a legal loophole—the fact that despite being insane he was still put on trial for the killings.

Nerves

"Me and my solicitor are going to get them on a technicality," he predicted. "You're not allowed to put an insane man on trial. And I can prove that I'm now normal."

Sutcliffe spares no thought for the dreadful impact this will have on families of his 13 murder victims, pictured opposite.

"I never write to any of them," he revealed. "There's no point. The only dealing was when they managed to get half of our house as compensation. That got on my nerves."

Brother Carl, 40, was visiting the Ripper to try to sort out a family row. Sutcliffe had told a penpal he wanted a day out to visit his sister who was dying from cancer.

But all three of his sisters—Ann, Maureen and Jane—are perfectly healthy. When the story broke they cut off all contact with him.

Amazingly, during Carl's visit Sutcliffe tried to lighten the mood—by telling a ‘joke' in appalling taste. He said:

"This man is sick of his wife and decided to get a hitman to kill her. He's told about this bloke called Arty and when he phones up Arty says he'll do it for a quid.

"Arty goes to the supermarket where the woman works and strangles her. The manager gets involved and he strangles him as well. And when a shopper tries to stop him he does the same to them. The headline in the paper the next day reads: "Arty Chokes at Tesco's: Three for a Pound."

Afterwards Carl told us: "Peter was laughing but I was worried other inmates might hear—it's sick saying stuff like that.

"He should NOT be allowed out. He's totally mad. How the hell can he be normal after what he's done?"