They almost let the killer go again.
The two officers who were on a morals patrol in the red light district of the northern English city of Sheffield that Friday evening, January 2, 1981, noticed a brown Rover 3500 with a black vinyl roof. The car is parked in a driveway. A young woman and a man are sitting inside. The older of the officers, Robert Ring, is certain: it can only be a prostitute and her customer. You park the cruiser in front of the rover. headlights on. The younger cop, Robert Hydes, gets out and saunters to the driver’s window.
“Is that your car?” – “Yes,” says the bearded man at the wheel. “Name, address?” – “Peter Williams, 65 Dorchester Road, Canklow, Rotherham.” Rotherham is six miles from Sheffield. Now Sergeant Robert Ring has also reached the car. “And who is she?” – “My girlfriend.” – “What’s her name?” – “I don’t know, I haven’t known her that long.”
The woman is 24-year-old Olivia R. Convicted of prostitution and free on parole. Ring and Hydes have the rover’s license plates checked over the radio. They belong to a Škoda. It’s registered under a different name. The officers arrest the couple on suspicion of theft and accompany the woman to the patrol car. For a moment the driver is left alone.
“I need to pee urgently,” he calls out. And disappears briefly into the bushes.
Peter William Sutcliffe gives his real name at the station. And the right address. He lives in Bradford, a good hour from Sheffield. Three women have been murdered in Bradford in recent years. Two others were ambushed and barely survived. None of the officers believe they have the long-sought “Yorkshire Ripper” in front of them. But there are the license plates. The lies about the name. And the blue and red multi-knotted rope they found in the car. Two of the victims were choked with such a rope.
The officers decide to hold Sutcliffe for 48 hours. They also call the Ripper Unit in Leeds. “Peter William Sutcliffe?” says the colleague. “He’s okay, we’ve asked him a couple of times.”
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