I was sixteen when the ripper was picked up in Melbourne Av, Sheffield. I was with my first boyfriend at Broomhill a minutes walk up the hill. My bf got a bus to his area and I was going to catch a different bus back to another area.
My bf left me at the bus stop as his bus was due, the last bus of the evening, as was mine, but my bus never showed up.
I had to walk home, in 1981 you didn't get taxi's especially at 16 years old with no money, and having to find a phone box to order one was another thing, so I walked.
I can remember being so scared, even though in Sheffield he had never struck, we all were scared especially up north. The road he was caught on in an area called Broomhill was not really a red light district, the road was behind the most prestigeous private girls school in Sheffield, the area where she was was picked up would have been Broomhall, a short distance away, full of huge Victorian delapidated houses than had gone to ruin in the 1970's. That was the red light district at that time, so they obviously drove a short distance up the road to Broomhill, so as not to get caught for both of them.
The next day or so the details came out and realising I was two minutes away from where this man had been caught made my blood run cold. Looking back I'm proud that our police force had their instincs about this man, from this programme it shows there were so many mistakes, ignorances and minimising of the actual women who survived, it doesn't show male police officers in a very good light. Shocking.
I can also remember at the time nobody who I knew thought he was a Geordie, it didn't fit, when the tapes first were aired everybody said no way, from the get go, but it was an extremely scary time for women, you didn't talk about it but it was there, there really was a feeling he was never going to get caught.
My thoughts go out to all the victims and their families, apologies and reconpence to the dreadful way the survivors and families of the deceased were treated needs to be looked at, but it appears the only people who gained financially were the people who this did not directly affect.
Why do they get things so wrong.
Litigeous nonsense that prevents the actual victims and their families from gaining justice.