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SUTCLIFFE - Peter William Sutcliffe was born in Yorkshire, on 2 June 1946. . He was a quiet, shy boy who much preferred to stay indoors with his mother than join in the rough games of his younger brothers and sisters, choosing to read rather than play sport. Intimidated by his father’s aggressive masculinity, he found a safe haven in his mother, who adored all of her children. At school, which he always hated, Peter did not attempt to integrate with the other children, avoiding the rough games from which he, being small and not particularly strong, invariably came out the worse for wear. He was subjected to severe bullying, culminating in two weeks truancy from school before his parents were informed of his absence. He had spent the two weeks hiding in the loft, reading comics and books by torchlight. He left school at the age of fifteen with no idea what he wanted to do with his life. Over the next two years, Peter would change jobs regularly, finally working as a gravedigger at the Bingley Cemetery. At the age of twenty Peter met his first girlfriend, her name was Sonia Szurma, the daughter of immigrants from Czechoslovakia, now living in Bradford. Eight years later they married on 10 August, Sonia’s 24 birthday.
Peter had succeeded in creating a public persona that was exemplary, described by many as hard working and quiet, a caring and loving husband who kept to himself with no outward signs of the violence and depravity he had hidden deep within him but on Friday, 2 January 1981 he was arrested. The Yorkshire Ripper’s five-year reign of terror came to an end. In the previous five years, beginning in July 1975 with his first attack, he had killed thirteen women and left seven others for dead. As the nation celebrated the triumph of good over evil, the Yorkshire Ripper’s family sat stunned. It was incomprehensible to them that the Peter William Sutcliffe that they knew and loved could possibly be responsible for the heinous crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper.