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Yorkshire Ripper

From 1975 to 1981, Peter Sutcliffe brutally murdered 13 women, and remained at large despite being interviewed nine times by police in connection with the killings. Accurate descriptions from survivors were dismissed by police who decided that Sutcliffe, later dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, was only targeting sex workers. During the 1980s, with Women Against Rape, the ECP picketed the high court to protest the murders and the official disregard for sex workers’ lives, notoriously expressed by the Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers’ comments that “some [of the victims] were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women.”

The BBC documentary ‘The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story’ lays bare the case’s outrageous misogyny and lets silenced women be heard at last.

Independent: Families of Yorkshire Ripper victims receive police apology for language used during investigation

‘It was only when some so-called respectable women got killed that they began to pay attention,’ says campaigner Maya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheim West Yorkshire Police has apologised to the families of Peter Sutcliffe’s victims for the “language, tone and terminology” used by senior officers during their investigation into the killings. John Robins, the force’s chief constable, […]

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Verso: Are Sex Workers the Original Feminists? A brief history of UK sex worker activism

Ray Filar ‘Sex workers are the original feminists’, say Juno Mac and Molly Smith in Revolting Prostitutes. It’s an incendiary claim–not least because tracking ‘firsts’ is a fraught pursuit–but it might well be true. Mac and Smith point toward the medieval brothel workers who formed guilds and went on strike; the 15th century Bavarian prostitutes […]

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The Guardian: The Yorkshire Ripper Files review – a stunningly mishandled manhunt

This profound and disturbing true-crime show lays bare the case’s outrageous misogyny – and lets silenced women be heard at last. Over the course of three nights, the film-maker Liza Williams is revisiting one of the biggest – and longest – murder manhunts in British history. The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story […]

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BBC News: Bradford killings:- fear returns to the Ripper’s streets

By Andy McFarlanePolice searches evoked memories of the Yorkshire Ripper murdersThe discovery of the remains of a woman – sparking police searches in Bradford’s red light district – has brought back chilling memories of the 1970s.Back then, it took six years to find and convict Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, for killing 13 women – […]

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Statement: Bradford – when will safety be prioritised?

A man has been charged with the murder of three women in Bradford. When will sex workers’ safety be prioritised? The discovery of a woman’s body, now confirmed to be that of Suzanne Blamires, has focussed press attention on the disappearances of three women in Bradford.  Stephen Griffiths has been charged with their murder.   Our heartfelt sympathies […]

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Statement: Prostitutes are innocent ok!

Excerpt from Some Mother’s Daughter, The Hidden Movement of Prostitute Women Against Violence, International Prostitutes Collective, Crossroads Books 1999, pp49-51.1981: The trial of the Yorkshire Ripper, serial murderer Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women.PROSTITUTES ARE INNOCENT OK!We are picketing today to protest against the handling of the Ripper case — by the court, the police and the […]

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