Peter Sutcliffe's arrest - PC Robert Hydes & Sergeant Robert Ring
On the 17th November, 1980, Jacqueline Hill was brutally murdered close to the Arndale Centre in Leeds.
Reports suggest that following this latest murder then Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, was furious with the investigation and, if reports are to believed, she was ready to head to Yorkshire to take control of the investigation herself.
Margaret Thatcher is quoted as saying: 'The local police had so far failed totally in their enquiries into a series of murders which constituted the most appalling kind of violence against women. It was now a question of public confidence.'
It was at this time that a new squad dubbed ‘The Ripper Super Squad’ was formed to help give the investigation a much needed push.
This squad was to be led by Jim Hobson. The rest of the squad were:
- Commander Ron Harvey - Scotland Yard's head of the criminal intelligence branch
- David Gerty - Former senior Yard detective and now Assistant Chief Constable in the West Midlands
- Andrew Sloan - National coordinator of regional crime squads
- Leslie Emment - Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley
- Professor Stuart Kind, one of the country’s top forensic scientists
'The Ripper Super Squad' very quickly looked at two key aspects of the case so far, the attacks on Theresa Sykes and Yvonne Mysliwiec, which were initially discounted as Ripper victims.
The squad also release a note suggesting the Yorkshire Ripper most likely:
- Lives in or near Bradford, possibly in the Manningham or Shipley area
- Selects target towns which are different from the previous two incidents
- Goes out and if unsuccessful in finding a victim in the target town, he looks for one on the way home
- It follows that the next incident is unlikely to be in Leeds and, on the principle of maximum variety, it is likely to be in Huddersfield or Manchester or, in default, Bradford
On Friday 2nd January 1981 Peter Sutcliffe left his house in Garden Lane, Heaton, telling his wife Sonia that he was going to collect the key to his sister's car which had allegedly broken down.
A few hours later saw Sutcliffe cruising around Sheffield with false number plates attached to his Rover. The number plates were earlier taken from a scrap yard in Cooper Bridge, near Mirfield, and were linked to a Skoda saloon.
Sutcliffe was unsuccessful with his first attempt at picking up a prostitute. Denise Hall was approached but declined Sutcliffe's approach as something in his eyes frightened her.
On Broomhall Street Sutcliffe managed to entice Olivia Reivers into his car. Olivia was well known to the Sheffield vice squad.
They parked in a driveway of the Light Trades House where Sutcliffe handed Olivia a £10 note. For some reason Olivia declined to get into the back seat and for 10 minutes Sutcliffe failed to have sex with Olivia in the front of the car.
PC Robert Hydes and Sergeant Robert Ring were based at Hammerton Road police station and were on duty when they spotted Sutcliffe's car parked in the driveway.
They very quickly realised that the number plates did not match the Rover, but instead had belonged to a Skoda. Sutcliffe and Reivers were both arrested on suspicion of theft.
As the two officers escorted Reivers to the police car Sutcliffe took advantage of the situation and announced that he needed to urinate. He hid his ball-peen hammer and single-bladed knife next to a storage tank. A second knife was later found in a cistern at Hammerton Road police station.
As Sergeant Ring came on duty the following night Peter Sutcliffe was still in custody being questioned. Sergeant Ring remembered that Sutcliffe had disappeared from sight the previous evening to urinate. Ring returned to the site of the arrest and began a search. Once he had located the hammer and knife he reported back to the police station. A photographer was despatched to record the evidence.