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LAST UPDATE | 13 Nov 2020
THE WEST YORKSHIRE police have issued an apology to the relatives of Peter Sutcliffe’s victims for “the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time”.
West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins has issued an apology today, responding to calls from the son of the Yorkshire Ripper’s first recognised victim.
Richard McCann had earlier appealed to West Yorkshire Police to make a formal apology for the way in which his mother and other victims of Sutcliffe were described by officers in the 1970s.
He said he wanted the force “once and for all” to “apologise to the families, who are still around, for the way in which they described some of the women as ‘innocent’, inferring that some were not innocent – including my mum.
“I’d invite them to make that apology,” adding that “it would set the records straight.”
McCann added: “I want her to be remembered as the mother of four children, the daughter of her parents. She was a family woman who, through no fault of her own, was going through adversity and made some bad decisions, some risky decisions.
She paid for those decisions with her life.
In a statement released this afternoon, West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins said: “On behalf of West Yorkshire Police, I apologise for the additional distress and anxiety caused to all relatives by the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time in relation to Peter Sutcliffe’s victims.
Such language and attitudes may have reflected wider societal attitudes of the day, but it was as wrong then as it is now.
“A huge number of officers worked to identify and bring Peter Sutcliffe to justice and it is a shame that their hard work was overshadowed by the language of senior officers used at the time, the effect of which is still felt today by surviving relatives.
“Thankfully those attitudes are consigned to history and our approach today is wholly victim focused, putting them at the centre of everything we do.”
He added: “I offer this heartfelt apology today as the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police.”
Condolences to Carl Sutcliffe
McCann said he reached out to the serial killer’s brother “to offer my condolences” after hearing the news of his death.
He was only five years old when his mother, Wilma McCann, was murdered in 1975.
He revealed he had been in touch with one of Peter Sutcliffe’s brothers, Carl, following the news that the murderer had died in prison today.
McCann told the BBC: “I gave him a call when I got the news to offer my condolences.
“Carl Sutcliffe reached out to me many years ago when he read about my journey — he reached out to me with compassion and I felt the same.
“I know he obviously did some horrendous things but he was still his brother so I felt like I wanted to call him.”
He said news of Sutcliffe’s death had brought him “some degree of closure”, but that he had never wished him dead, nor was he celebrating the news.
He said: “Every time we hear a news story about him, and my mum’s photo is often shown, it’s just another reminder of what he did.”
He said “one positive” to come from Sutcliffe’s death is that “we’ll hear much less about him, and no more reminders about what happened all those years ago”.
A mother of four, Wilma McCann was just 28 when she was killed on playing fields in Chapeltown, Leeds, just yards from her home.
Her son said he was left terrified after his mother’s death, and when Sutcliffe killed Jayne MacDonald, who also lived in his street.
McCann said: “I was convinced as a child, having had no therapy of any description, that he was out there and that he was going to kill me.”
He added: “It really affected me. I was ashamed of being associated with Sutcliffe and all his crimes and, possibly, to do with the way that lots of people in society looked down, and the police and some of the media – describing some of the women as innocent and some not so innocent.
“I’m sorry to harp on about this but I’ve had to live with that shame for all these years.
“There’s only one person that should have felt any shame – although I doubt that he did – and that was Peter Sutcliffe.”
Retired detective Roger Parnell, who worked on the Ripper inquiry, rejected accusations the officers “did not care less” about prostitute victims.
He told BBC Radio 5Live: “We certainly did, I can assure you we did.
“These ladies were wives, they were mothers, they were sisters. And the inquiry did not change at the murder of Jayne MacDonald.
“We were all determined from the beginning to catch the perpetrator of all these murders.
“When I heard this morning that Peter Sutcliffe had died, I just could not care less, to be honest.”
Parnell said: “The senior officers at the time …. they just swallowed hook, line and sinker the Wearside Jack tape.
“Many of us, the officers on the ground, the DCs and the sergeants, we didn’t swallow this, to be quite honest.
“We let our thoughts be known but we were ignored.”
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In fairness most accept those on that flight are dead but it would be nice to know what happened to them.
Without getting into conspiracy theories . I find it very difficult to understand how nothing has been found/washed up/spotted at all.
Even if the aircraft hit the sea there would be some debris somewhere.
It’s not exactly a small aircraft and there was luggage as well as components that would float.
It’s some mystery.
Sorry Mike, you cant speculate about what happened to MH370 without falling down the old ‘rabbit hole’.
Anyone who thinks that U.S. intel agencies dont know the exact location of every single modern Boeing everywhere on the planet is living in cloud cuckoo land.
Read up on Boeing’s “uninterruptible autopilot” patents.
I don’t know what happended to MH370 but I do know this: The US does know exactly what happened.
Seriously Stephen,we can speculate conspiracy theories for weeks and I’m not rubbishing any body’s theories but I personally (and I emphasise “personally”) just can’t get my head around all the organised theories. What/who would benifit from the capture/destruction of the aircraft.
Either way it’s one of the strangest mysteries in the world so far and if there is one thing humans love,it’s a mystery.
Stephen,respectfully, you are full of chit….No debris, no oil slick on a perfectly calm ocean(the storms weren`t happening at the time),no radar emission from the worlds biggest power that has the whole Pacific ocean covered with satellite intelligence, not even a beep from a black box? – Black boxes do not just disappear! – they are built to last for at least 3 months,even in deep water, this thing has false flag written all
when you smell Bullchit, you have to call what you see.
is all part of the NWO- Divide and conquer
Sorry, stephen , i meant to say Mike
UFO’s might have taken it
The plane that was blown out of the sky over the Ukraine, happened to have 100 of the top scientists in the world of communicable diseases heading towards a meeting in another country, Riddle me this, .
Why did professional people from all over the world choose to meet in Holland,and then jointly fly out to Argentina for a conference on World diseases? SurelyThey could have come from their own countries and made their way to the meting Via their own countries Airlines
Check the Passenger manifests for these flights involved,
Oh gawwwd….Seriously,why me.
Is there some kind of norton or avg anti looneyware I could invest in.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10975275/Leading-HIV-researchers-lost-as-flight-MH17-is-downed-in-Ukraine.html
sorry not argentina, it was Australia
Nothing Personal Mike, sorry, I just think that this thing is bigger than we will ever be
New World Order?? No offence or anything, but did you get measured up for your tinfoil hat yet?
There is no proof that this plane did crash. The plane still had enough fuel to fly another 2,200 miles after its communication devices were turned off. It is still a major mystery.
Yesterday I was listening to the radio and the expert said they had tracked the plane till it was “running out of fuel”. I remember this because I thought it was odd that someone whether a hijacker or a crew member would take a plane and fly it round till it ran out of fuel. Very strange.
My sympathy to the relatives and friends.
In fairness what else can they do! A plane vanishes without a trace, zilch nothing, must be very hard for the families. I get the presumed dead, but an accident!!!
Terrorism I don’t think so- why not claim responsibility for it – that was the point of it
And I think – in realistic terms- that plane was pretty small in relation to the vast sea it was ment to
Have crashed into- also the fact that they don’t know where it went – on autopilot or communications turned off deliberately- conspiracy theorists could point to any amount of different things
With no evidence to disprove it- but what is sure is the plane is gone – the passengers/ crew are most likely deceased either through foul play or accident – lots of aircraft have disappeared and never been located – this disappearance with technology today however is unusual
Surely if it had crashed especially into the ocean some part of it would have surfaced by now I just don’t get it, there’s more to this than meets the eye god help the families
It’s horrific for their families. In all fairness we have to presume all crew and passengers are dead. It’s almost a year and there’s no contact. All those who think the lack of evidence is suspicious, didn’t a shark wash up the other day that they weren’t even sure existed? The sea is a powerful being. Never underestimate it…
Thought and prayers with the families at this difficult time.
Oh well. At least they wont have to go thru it a 2nd time
The safest month to fly is in May but in a recession and austerity is there ever a safe time to fly but that is my view.
Michael Sands the only part of the world experiencing a recession is the EU and the USA, in the rest of the world it’s been business as usual
Ah yeah i was over in Iraq and Syria last weekend, place is flourishing!
Russia is an exremely aggressive state. Thousands of russian soldiers being “on vacation with hundred tanks, aniaircraft emplacements and heavy artillery guns” wage a real war against free Ukraine. These degenerates downed MH-17 with 298 unhappy victims.
Nadiya Savchenko is a 33 year-old Ukrainian female pilot kidnapped by Russia-supported insurgents in eastern Ukraine on June 18, 2014 and handed to Russian authorities who groundless charged her with an alleged killing of two Russian journalists that had died during combat. Being a prisoner of war, she is held by Russia in violation of Geneva Conventions and treated as a common criminal. The Russian side refuses to free her. Nadiya is on hunger strike and her life is in danger. Ukrainians know she is a victim of the Putin’s regime. Be on the side of Good, help Nadia!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/help-free-nadiya-savchenko/NS7bHz0T
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