Yorkshire Ripper paints disturbing picture in Broadmoor Hospital of him ‘about to strike unknown victim in his green Ford Capri’
The chilling artwork, painted by Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe while in Broadmoor, shows a figure resembling the murderer inside the car he used at the start of his killing spree
YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was allowed to paint disturbing pictures in Broadmoor Hospital — including one showing him inside the car he used at the start of his killing spree.
His chilling artwork depicts a bearded man in a lime-green Ford Capri as it approaches a woman in a deserted street.
Sutcliffe drove a similar car when he killed his first two victims — Wilma McCann in October 1975 and Emily Jackson the following January.
A second painting shows a Christ-like crucifixion scene and features a man who bears a striking resemblance to Sutcliffe nailed to a cross.
Last night a criminologist said that image implied the 71-year-old — moved from Broadmoor to Frankland Prison, Co Durham, in 2016 — saw himself as a victim rather than the perpetrator of his horrifying crimes.
Sutcliffe, who was handed 20 life terms in 1981 and went on to spend 32 years in the high-security hospital, painted the pictures during classes.
Both Wilma and Emily were killed in Leeds as he began a five-year reign of terror which saw him convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to slaughter seven more.
Sutcliffe is also suspected of killing Carolyn Allen, 17, who disappeared from Bramcote, Notts, in 1974 and whose remains were found the following year. A witness reported seeing a man “trawling” in a green car.
The man in the killer’s Capri picture is approaching a woman who is walking a dog in broad daylight.
Neither Wilma or Emily — both impoverished mums who sold sex to make ends meet — were out with a dog when they were targeted.
But criminologist Prof David Wilson, an expert in serial killers including Sutcliffe, said the Ripper was likely to be “memorialising” his crimes and the time when he drove a Capri.
He also said Sutcliffe, suspected of a string of unsolved attacks dating back to 1969, could have been painting an image of an unknown victim.
Prof Wilson — also an author and TV presenter — said: “The pictures are designed to attract attention.
“Wilma McCann, the first victim, did not go walking with a dog so it might be that the dog is something to do with an earlier victim.
“The key to taking us back to those moments, though, is the fact it’s a green Capri. Is he excited by the memory or memorialising it on canvas as a form of perverted pride?
“The second painting is even more odd in the sense he’s Christ-like on the cross.
“That does not imply anything about shame or trying to atone for his crimes. It implies he sees himself as a victim rather than the perpetrator.” Sutcliffe enjoyed a relaxed regime at Broadmoor, where he was held at a cost to the taxpayer of £330,000 per year — five times the bill for a jail stay.
The killer, now a Jehovah’s Witness, was allowed letters, calls and visits from family and friends including former wife Sonia, 67. And he enjoyed classes in art and pottery as well as visits from religious leaders to aid his Bible studies.
Sutcliffe, with his own room on the unit’s Sandhurst Ward, viewed DVDs and TV and enjoyed shows like Mrs Brown’s Boys and X Factor as well as The Horror Channel.
He even struck up a friendship with paedophile Jimmy Savile, who regularly visited the hospital under the guise of charity work.
In a 2010 letter to a pal from Broadmoor, the fiend wrote: “I’ve known Jimmy since I was in Parkhurst. I painted a portrait of him in his tracksuit. I gave it to him when he popped in.”
He also told how he made an Elvis Presley artwork in a Broadmoor pottery class, which he gave to Sonia.
Prof Wilson, an ex-prison officer who is now a Birmingham City University lecturer, said some inmates did art classes as a form of therapy.
But he said it was clear this was not true of Sutcliffe. He said: “Firstly I would ask, ‘Why paint’? There’s lots of things he could be doing at Broadmoor like drama, music clubs and poetry — but he chose to paint.
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“It also appears the painting is not central to any therapy, it is simply a choice he makes. He could have painted still life or bowls of fruit, but he chooses subjects that relate to his crimes or how he sees himself.
“This is a very public demonstration. He’s not seeking to keep these canvases private — he’s choosing to make them public by sending them out or giving them to someone.
“These paintings indicate a narcissistic personality disorder. Giving them to someone does not imply shame. There is a lack of understanding that what he has painted is wrong. He doesn’t get it.”