Yorkshire Ripper death: People 'should focus on victims'

Mother-of-four Wilma McCann was the first woman murdered by Sutcliffe in 1975

The Yorkshire Ripper's death should mark the end of his infamy and instead focus attention on the innocent lives he took, says his first victim's son.

Peter Sutcliffe targeted women across Yorkshire and north-west England between 1975 and 1980.

He died aged 74 while serving a whole life term for 13 murders and the attempted murder of seven others.

Richard McCann was five when his mother, Wilma McCann, was killed just yards from her home in Leeds.

Twelve of the 13 women Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester (Marguerite Walls not pictured)

"The attention he's had over the years, the continuous news stories that we've suffered over the years, there is some form of conclusion to that," said Mr McCann.

"I am sure a lot of the families, surviving children of the victims, may well be glad he has gone and they have a right to feel like that."

Mr McCann said his focus was on peace for his mother rather than hatred for her killer.

"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."

Wilma McCann's son Richard said Sutcliffe's death would bring him "closure"

Mr McCann told BBC Breakfast he was left terrified by his mother's murder and that of 16-year-old shop worker Jayne MacDonald, who also lived on his street.

"It really affected me. I was ashamed of being associated with Sutcliffe and all his crimes. 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."

Sutcliffe's victims

• Wilma McCann, 28, Leeds, October 1975

• Emily Jackson, 42, Leeds, January 1976

• Irene Richardson, 28, Leeds, February 1977

• Patricia Atkinson, 32, Bradford, April 1977

• Jayne McDonald, 16, Leeds, June 1977

• Jean Jordan, 21, Manchester, October 1977

• Yvonne Pearson, 22, Bradford, January 1978

• Helen Rytka, 18, Huddersfield, January 1978

• Vera Millward, 41, Manchester, May 1978

• Josephine Whittaker, 19, Halifax, May 1979

• Barbara Leach, 20, Bradford, September 1979

• Marguerite Walls, 47, Leeds, August 1980

• Jacqueline Hill, 20, Leeds, November 1980

Sutcliffe targeted women at night, some of whom were sex workers, although not all of his victims were.

Mr McCann said when 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald was killed in 1977, officers referred to her as the first "innocent" victim.

He said he wanted West Yorkshire Police to apologise "once and for all" for the way some of the victims were described, telling Sky News: "My mum was completely innocent and deserved to live."

Retired detective Roger Parnell, who worked on the Ripper inquiry, rejected accusations officers "did not care less" about victims who were prostitutes.

He told BBC Radio 5Live: "We certainly did, I can assure you we did. These ladies were wives, they were mothers, they were sisters.

"We were all determined from the beginning to catch the perpetrator of all these murders."

'Story of a survivor'

One woman has spoken of surviving Sutcliffe's attack when she was a 21-year-old art student in Leeds and how she dealt with the aftermath.

It has taken Mo Lea 30 years to write a book on the "success story of a survivor," she previously told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"I carried a lot of anger around with me, as a young woman, as a middle aged woman and now in my 60s. I am not as angry as I was, but I have had to learn to manage that anger."

She said she had written to Sutcliffe about the attack, which left her with multiple fractures and a cracked skull, to let him know how it had affected her.

"I thought at least if I post it I'll know that in some way there'll be a level of understanding. I didn't expect a response and I didn't get one but it felt good to put it in the post-box."

'Closure'

Marcella Claxton was 20 when Sutcliffe attacked her with a hammer after she left a house party in Leeds in May 1976.

"I have to live with my injuries, 54 stitches in my head, back and front, plus I lost a baby, I was four months pregnant," she told Sky news.

"I still get headaches, dizzy spells and black-outs."

She told the Daily Mail: "I'm happy he's gone. I've thought about what he did to me every day since and although the news that's he's died brings those horrible memories back, at least now I may be able to get some closure.

"I'm hoping it will bring me a little peace knowing he's no longer with us."