A 50-year-old man appeared in court on Monday in connection with hoax letters and tapes sent more than 25 years ago to detectives hunting one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers.
John Humble is accused of sending three letters and an audio tape to detectives investigating the ”Yorkshire Ripper” murders in and around the northern English city of Leeds in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The so-called ”Wearside Jack” letters and tapes purported to be from the killer and taunted police for not catching him.
After they were received, police switched their attentions away from Yorkshire to the Sunderland area of northeast England in a fruitless bid to catch the killer, who preyed on prostitutes and young women.
The letters were exposed as fake after the real killer, lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe, from Bradford, near Leeds, was arrested in 1981 and confessed to being the Ripper.
Sutcliffe, whose killing spree terrified the whole of Britain, was later jailed for life for the murder of 13 women and leaving seven others for dead. He is currently being detained at a psychiatric hospital.
Humble, a former labourer and window cleaner from Sunderland, appeared at Leeds Crown Court, northern England, on Monday to deny four charges of perverting the course of justice.
He was remanded in custody until his trial on March 20. – AFP
