Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of murder, attempted murder, sexual violence and serious mental illness. Listener discretion is advised.

Peter Sutcliffe has told the jury his story.

Now the prosecution will test it.

Sir Michael Havers begins with Olivia Reivers and the night of Sutcliffe’s arrest. He examines the weapons Sutcliffe concealed, the lies he told and his claim that discovering those weapons was a signal from God that he should finally confess.

Why did Sutcliffe tell nobody about the supposed voice for years? Why was the divine mission absent from his confession? And why did the account upon which his defence depended emerge only after psychiatric assessment had begun?

As the cross-examination continues, Havers confronts Sutcliffe with his conflicting explanations, the women who did not fit his alleged mission and the planning, manipulation and self-preservation surrounding his crimes.

The episode examines the lives and experiences of Olivia Reivers, Wilma McCann, Yvonne Pearson, Josephine Whitaker, Theresa Sykes, Jean Jordan, Helen Rytka and Jacqueline Hill—women whose humanity could never be defined by the category Sutcliffe imposed upon them.

Was his account evidence of a fixed religious delusion?

Or had he given the psychiatrists precisely the story he needed them to believe?

This episode also clarifies the chronology of the trial: Sutcliffe gave evidence and was cross-examined before Dr Hugo Milne, Dr Malcolm MacCulloch and Dr Terence Kay presented their psychiatric evidence to the jury.

This is an episode about credibility.

About calculation.

About mental illness and responsibility.

And about what remained when Peter Sutcliffe’s account was tested against the evidence.

🎙️ Hidden Chronicles explores the moments where history, crime and human psychology collide.

🎧 Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible and other major podcast platforms.

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