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Ripper Hoaxer trapped by DNA

 

21 March 2006

A near thirty year search for the man who sent police misleading letters, purporting to be from the Yorkshire Ripper, has come to an end thanks to advances in DNA technology.

John Humble (50) from Sunderland was today sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of perverting the course of justice.

Humble admitted sending three letters and an audio tape to police in the late 1970s in which he claimed he was the Yorkshire Ripper. The hoax communications sent detectives on the wrong trial, concentrating on the Sunderland area.

The real Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981 but the identity of the hoaxer remained a mystery until a breakthrough came in 2005.

Scientists at the Forensic Science Service worked on three small pieces, from one of the envelopes, which were left over from the original blood group tests.

A new technique, Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA was used on the envelope pieces. LCN DNA allows scientists to obtain a DNA profile from a sample expected to contain very few cells, even if it is too small to be visible to the naked eye.

The tests yielded a DNA profile. This was searched against the National DNA Database and produced a single hit to a man in Northumbria.

Humble was arrested and charged in October 2005 and was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today.

Peter Grant, specialist advisor at the FSS, who worked on the case said: “The fact that this 26 year old mystery could be solved with what is now such a straightforward test is a testament both to the power of techniques available to us and to the huge investigative tool that is the National DNA Database.”