THE Yorkshire Ripper serial killer has died in hospital, after testing positive for Covid-19.

This morning the Prison Service has confirmed that Sutcliffe had died after reportedly refused treatment at University Hospital of North Durham.

The 74-year-old had tested positive for Covid-19 and was suffering from underlying health conditions such as diabetes, obesity and heart problems.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “HMP Frankland prisoner Peter Coonan (born Sutcliffe) died in hospital on November 13. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”

He was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and the North West between 1975 and 1980.

Basingstoke Gazette: Twelve victims of Peter Sutcliffe: Top row L to R Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson; Middle row L to R Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka; Bottom row L to R: Vera Millward, Josephine Whitaker, Barbara Leach, Jacqueline Hill (PA)Twelve victims of Peter Sutcliffe: Top row L to R Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson; Middle row L to R Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka; Bottom row L to R: Vera Millward, Josephine Whitaker, Barbara Leach, Jacqueline Hill (PA)

He was convicted in 1981 and, after a long spell in Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, he was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2016 after being deemed stable enough to serve time in prison.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, has urged the public to remember Sutcliffe’s victims today.

He tweeted: “Lot’s of breaking news about the death of convicted murderer Peter Sutcliffe. I understand why this is news worthy, but my ask of the media is lets show the faces of those he killed, not him. The 13 women he murdered and the 7 who survived his brutal attacks are in my thoughts.”

In May 1981, Sutcliffe was jailed for 20 life terms at the Old Bailey, with the judge recommending a minimum sentence of 30 years.