14/05/2008
Yorkshire Ripper Makes Case For Freedom
One of England's most notorious serial killers is making his case for freedom on the grounds that his human rights have been breached.
Peter Sutcliffe, better known as the 'Yorkshire Ripper' murdered 13 women and attempted to kill a further seven across northern England in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sutcliffe was sentenced to 20 life sentences and was ordered by the judge to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years after his sentence began at HMP Parkhurst and was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital.
Sutcliffe, 61, will be represented by Saimo Chahal, a partner at London based firm Bindmans & Partners, who specialises in civil liberties and social welfare.
Ms Chahal will put the case forward that his human rights have been breached as a tariff was not fixed for his sentence.
She also aims to get Sutcliffe back into the prison system and has requested a reassessment of his psychiatric condition.
Ms Chahal said that The Secretary of Stave is "in breach of Article Five of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in failing to set a tariff".
Ms Chahal won the prestigious 2006 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year for her work in mental health law.
However, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that she found it hard to imagine circumstances in which he should be freed and that top of her priorities are "the rights of those people who were his victims" and "keeping this country safe".
Sutcliffe, born in 1946 in Bingley declared he was the Yorkshire Ripper in 1981, claiming that God had told him to murder the women.
(DS/JM)
Peter Sutcliffe, better known as the 'Yorkshire Ripper' murdered 13 women and attempted to kill a further seven across northern England in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sutcliffe was sentenced to 20 life sentences and was ordered by the judge to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years after his sentence began at HMP Parkhurst and was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital.
Sutcliffe, 61, will be represented by Saimo Chahal, a partner at London based firm Bindmans & Partners, who specialises in civil liberties and social welfare.
Ms Chahal will put the case forward that his human rights have been breached as a tariff was not fixed for his sentence.
She also aims to get Sutcliffe back into the prison system and has requested a reassessment of his psychiatric condition.
Ms Chahal said that The Secretary of Stave is "in breach of Article Five of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in failing to set a tariff".
Ms Chahal won the prestigious 2006 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year for her work in mental health law.
However, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that she found it hard to imagine circumstances in which he should be freed and that top of her priorities are "the rights of those people who were his victims" and "keeping this country safe".
Sutcliffe, born in 1946 in Bingley declared he was the Yorkshire Ripper in 1981, claiming that God had told him to murder the women.
(DS/JM)
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