Peter William Sutcliffe was born on Sunday, 2nd June 1946. Sutcliffe was born in a small stone cottage tucked into the hillside along Ferncliffe Road, Bingley.

Peter Sutcliffe was the first child of John and Kathleen Sutcliffe. John had married Kathleen Coonan while on leave in 1945.

John Sutcliffe had been stationed in Gibraltar during most of the war. Following that John was an apprentice at the Co-Op bakery in Bingley. By the time Peter Sutcliffe left school John was as a weaver at a local mill.

John and Kathleen's second child, Thomas, was born in September 1947. Unfortunately, Thomas died three days after his arrival in the cottage on Ferncliffe Road.

John and Kathleen went on to have five more children.

Peter Sutcliffe attended the Cottingley Manor Roman Catholic Secondary Modern. Sutcliffe left school in 1961, aged 15, with no significant qualifications.

By 1961 the Sutcliffe family had moved to a council house to accommodate the growing family. They had moved into Number 57, Cornwall Road, Bingley.

After leaving school Sutcliffe joined his father at the mill but left in a relatively short space of time to become an apprentice at Brierley and Fairbank engineering works. Sutcliffe also left this job with completing the apprenticeship.

During the early hours of Christmas Day 1961, John Sutcliffe was arrested and charged with burglary. Thirty-nine year-old John William Sutcliffe admitted stealing foodstuffs valued at 19 shillings 7½d and was conditionally discharged for twelve months on payment of costs.

In the summer of 1964 Sutcliffe became a grave digger at Bingley Cemetary. His wage was £7 for a forty-four-hour week.