FROM the moment her husband was arrested for the Yorkshire Ripper murders, Sonia Sutcliffe became a target for abuse and personal attacks.
Arsonists and burglars now had her in their sights — as did those who wrongly believed “she must have known”.
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A few days after Peter Sutcliffe’s trial for 13 murders started at the Old Bailey in 1981, the couple’s house in Bradford was firebombed, causing extensive damage to the living room.
It was also burgled repeatedly, with at least nine raids happening in the five years after Sutcliffe was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars.
As well as the physical attacks there was a persistent whispering campaign by people convinced that Sonia had known about her husband’s reign of terror.
It was a view that HGV driver Sutcliffe was determined to put to bed.
He reveals in my new book I’m The Yorkshire Ripper, written with Alfie James, who was in touch with Sutcliffe for nearly 20 years: “I was never covered in blood.
“People used to say Sonia must know something because of all the blood, but there wasn’t any.
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“She’s perfectly as white as snow. It’s just stupid people speculating. She never saw anything out of the ordinary.
“By the time I came in, she was in bed. When I was out late, because I’d be playing snooker with the lads next door, and I’d drop them off and then go on the mission.
“And when I was a long distance away I used to ring her at night saying, ‘oh, I can’t make it back, I haven’t got enough driving hours left, so I can’t make it back.
“ ‘I’ll be having an overnight, so lock up and go to bed’, so she was not worrying about me.”
There was never any evidence or hint that Sonia had any knowledge of Sutcliffe’s crimes before his arrest, yet the gossip and threats never ceased.
Many years after his conviction, Sonia was still on the receiving end of poison pen letters.
Sutcliffe said: “She’s had threatening letters — anonymous of course, the cowardly bastards.
“When she is being threatened, she has to face it all. She is subject to this rubbish.
“They are terrorising her and these people haven’t the slightest empathy and they know she’s been perfectly behaved all the time.
“She put up with a lot, bless her — she’s a good lass.”
Sonia later remarried after she and Sutcliffe finally divorced in 1994, but she continued to be supportive of her former husband and was his next of kin when he died aged 74 in November 2020.
Sutcliffe said: “She stuck with me for many, many years, before she even thought of a separation.
She really must have loved me a lot. Most women would have just washed their hands of somebody, but she knew me so well, my personality and that, she couldn’t let go.
Peter Sutcliffe
“All credit to her, and then even after that when I suggested she find somebody else, she still keeps coming to see me. She really must have loved me a lot.
“Most women would have just washed their hands of somebody, but she knew me so well, my personality and that, she couldn’t let go.
“No one could have asked for a better, more loyal wife than Sonia was to me, and as a friend she still is as loyal, and yes, I am very proud of her. She’s an angel.”
More than three decades after the trial, when Sutcliffe had let himself go and was now an overweight, unkempt and unhealthy pensioner, he had not lost sight of what he first found attractive about Sonia.
He said one day in Broadmoor: “I had two lovely visits from Sonia on Friday.
“She visited in the afternoon and the evening. She looked well, she looked beautiful I’d say.
“She hasn’t gained any weight at all, she’s got a lovely figure and she was dressed nicely and she looked lovely.”
Like any other long-term prisoner, Sutcliffe’s mind sometimes drifted to the other life he could have had if he had not committed his crimes.
Murderous acts
“Sometimes I think it’s passed quick but, other times, I think it’s passed slow.
“It just depends what sort of frame of mind I’m in, sometimes I think.
“It’s all that time ago since I made love to Sonia and all that, it dulls your memory — say 32 years without having sex, without making love to your wife.
“Or anybody, nobody at all, that’s a long time in that respect.
“She’s a good lass. Tells me she still loves me, even though she’s married again.
I’d love to do something simple such as a long walk in our favourite part of the countryside with Sonia in nice weather, that would do me nicely.
Peter Sutcliffe
“We send birthday cards, Christmas cards and that. I’d love to do something simple such as a long walk in our favourite part of the countryside with Sonia in nice weather, that would do me nicely.”
Conjugal visits are not allowed in the UK, a rule which, unsurprisingly, does not have much support among prisoners, especially lifers like Sutcliffe.
He said: “In the marriage vows it says, let no man put asunder who God has joined together. But the system does that, so they’re going against the Bible.
“They’re hypocrites because they ask you to swear on the Bible, and yet they ignore what the Bible says.”
Over the course of Sonia’s many visits, the conversation at times inevitably turned to Sutcliffe’s murderous acts.
He said: “I have explained why I did what I felt I had to do, when I’ve spoken to Sonia and discussed things over the years.
“It’s the least I could do with her staying by my side all that time.
“I never told Sonia to be careful when she went out at night all those years ago because it would have made me a hypocrite if you get my drift. I knew she wasn’t at risk.”
- I’m The Yorkshire Ripper, by Robin Perrie and Alfie James, is published by Mirror Books on March 3, priced £8.99. Also available in ebook.
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