This is not a story I usually tell, but the news of Peter Sutcliffe’s death takes me back to 1979-80 when the police regarded me as a potential suspect.
I had been living in Leeds and Bradford from 1977-79, working for a touring theatre company. In late August 1979 I moved to Peterborough to join another touring theatre company. That first weekend I borrowed the company van to drive up to Leeds to collect all my belongings and those of a Leeds friend who had also moved to Peterborough. I stayed with friends and parked the van in Chapeltown, which had a somewhat notorious reputation in those days, and had been the scene of some of Sutcliffe’s murders. I had also briefly lived in Chapeltown when I first arrived in Leeds in 1977, having lived in Hull from 1975.
That weekend Sutcliffe murdered Barbara Leach, a student, in Bradford.
In early 1980, in Peterborough, the police called the theatre company to ask who was driving the van that weekend in Leeds back in September. They had obviously and regularly been noting registration numbers in the areas connected to the murders.
I was asked to report to Peterborough Police station and was interviewed by two local CID officers. They asked all the obvious questions – What I did? Why was I in Leeds that weekend? Had I ever lived in Leeds/Bradford?
I answered their questions and I thought that was it. But no.
They were clearly thinking: worked in theatre, travelled around West Yorkshire late at night, my time living in Hull, Leeds and Bradford coincided with the period of the murders, etc. This was also the time when the police were still obsessed with the ‘Wearside Jack’ tape and letters. So perhaps they thought I could also do accents.
I was called in again a few weeks later for another interview, and this time it was rather more formal. It was the same two local CID officers. I was asked to provide examples of my handwriting and to speak into a voice recorder. They asked me my shoe size (Size 7….the same, as it turned out, as Sutcliffe’s!). If DNA testing had been available in those days (it was introduced in 1985) no doubt I would have been asked to provide a sample. They also asked me what I was doing on various dates over the past few years. That wasn’t easy, but I could check against touring dates. But even that still left me often driving home late at night from all over West Yorkshire.
I also, at that time, had dark bushy hair and a dark beard….which also matched the few descriptions of the killer.
For the third interview, the two detectives came to my house. I half-joked about being arrested. They half-joked back that if there was a fourth interview it WOULD be under arrest!
We went through virtually everything we’d been through before and they left saying that they’d be in touch.
I never heard from them again.
Sutcliffe was arrested in January 1981 for driving with false number plates. When interviewed in connection to the murders, he confessed.
We now know the police completely bungled their enquiry. They not only interviewed Sutcliffe several times, but were tipped off about him, but that tip-off disappeared into their dysfunctional indexing system. They were also told by a number of experts that the ‘Wearside Jack’ stuff was a hoax but ignored that advice. The perpetrator of the hoax – John Humble – was eventually caught in 2005, having been identified through the DNA left on the envelopes he used to send the letters.
The tracing of car and van registration numbers led to thousands of interviews. The vast majority of those contacted were eliminated right at the start. It just so happened that I wasn’t.
In all the focus on Sutcliffe it’s essential to remember his 22 victims and those close to them, and the fear that deeply affected those living in and around West Yorkshire and beyond.
And in a weird bit of tragic serendipity, I’ve just discovered that one of my regular cycle rides around my local area in Manchester takes me right past the small wasteland site where the body of Jean Jordan, Sutcliffe’s sixth victim, was found.
Stumbling with Confidence 