The Yorkshire Ripper's ashes have been scattered at a beautiful seaside village, according to his niece Emily Sutcliffe. Peter Sutcliffe earned the name for terrorising women in the 1970s and 1980s and was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders.
He died in 2020 aged 74 after catching Covid. Now his niece Emily, speaking for the first time, said some of his ashes have been scattered by the sea in the village of Arnside, Cumbria, where Peter Sutcliffe stayed in his uncle’s caravan as a boy.
Emily, 28, said: “I was taken there once or twice when I was a child. It is lovely. That area means a lot to the whole family. We had family living in the area at the time and would visit them.”
She told The Mirror: “When he died it felt a bit like freedom, a relief. When I looked in the mirror I saw a monster because I was convinced I looked like him. When I was younger I was told I looked like my dad who has similar features to my uncle.
“It was so bad I wanted plastic surgery to change everything about my appearance. If I’d had the money I would have.”
The Yorkshire Ripper’s ex-wife Sonia Sutcliffe was his executor and it is thought the ashes were divided and sent to family and friends.
A portion of them are thought to have been released at Arnside. His father’s ashes were scattered there in 2004. It is believed the Ripper’s ashes could have been released on the adjacent beach at White Creek.
Emily said she was eight when her dad Carl, the killer’s brother, told her about her uncle.
She said: “I remember going into school and telling my friends because I thought my uncle was famous. I didn’t understand what he’d done then. Unfortunately it was the perfect age for bullying and it has scarred me.” She said a close friend at primary school told how her parents knew one of the victims. Emily added: “I felt like saying ‘I’m sorry, but it wasn’t me’.
“I was told by my family ‘you’re quiet, you’re artistic just like Uncle Peter’.
“I was scared I was inherently bad and thought I must have evil coursing through my veins. It’s had a crazy impact on my self-esteem. I developed an eating disorder and was massively underweight from the stress of it.”
She said: “In the months before he died I was seriously considering visiting him.”
Emily added: “His crimes affected so many people – even me so many generations later.”
