One of the UK's most notorious serial killers could have been caught sooner if a detective who suspected the Yorkshire Ripper first had remained in charge of the case, says a top judge.
Peter Sutcliffe, also known as Peter Coonan, and often referred to as the Yorkshire Ripper, was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others over a five-year-period.
The killing spree happened between 1975 and 1980 and he was later given 20 life sentences following his arrest in 1981. Now in a bold claim, a top judge said Sutcliffe, who evaded capture for years, says the sadistic killer could have been stopped sooner if a detective he knew well stayed in charge of the chilling case.
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The comments came from Judge Barrington Black, who ended his long legal career as a Supreme Justice of Gibraltar and retired at the age of 82, reports Mail Online. He said he felt the initial detective would have done better in the case, saying: "‘I feel that Dennis Hoban may have done better as he had good luck on his side."
Detective chief superintendent Dennis Hoban, played by Toby Jones in ITV’s new drama on the killings, The Long Shadow, was among the first to realise the killings were linked but was replaced in the case.
The new ITV drama documenting the life and crimes of Sutcliffe, who died in prison in 2020, was aired on Monday night (September 25).
After evading capture for years, Peter Sutcliffe was finally brought to justice when he was caught in an area known for being Sheffield's red light district with a 24-year-old sex worker in January 1981.
"He had a reputation for picking up villains out of thin air," Judge Black said of DCA's Hoban's talents. "It was said that if a villain was climbing out of a bedroom window having stolen jewellery or something and he climbed down the ladder, he’d find Dennis Hoban at the bottom."
Judge Black told of another occasion in which Hoban, from Leeds, overheard a gang of men chatting about their haul of expensive fur coats after stealing a van. He 'befriended' them and led them directly into Chapel Allerton police station to unload the goods.
Hoban was assigned to the infamous case after the Yorkshire Ripper’s first known murder, the killing of mother-of-four Wilma McCann, just 28 at the time.
He was said to be obsessive about his role in the force, devoting as many as 18 hours a day to his cases, and was believed to be one of the first officers to take the 'Yorkshire Ripper' cases seriously.
This was despite leaving school at 14 without any qualifications, but he quickly rising through the ranks of the West Yorkshire Police to become the head of Leeds CID. He was later replaced and died three years before Sutcliffe was ever caught.
Dennis' son previously told the Yorkshire Evening Post that his father loved family but couldn't wait to get back to police headquarters. He said: "He couldn’t bear not to be at the centre of things. For years, my brother and I thought there had to be a murder on Christmas Day.
"When we were older, we realised he’d probably asked one of his colleagues to ring him on the pretext of a serious case so he could escape from the house and get back to Brotherton House, the headquarters of Leeds City Police."
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