<p><br /> Peter Sutcliffe must spend the rest of his life behind bars, the High court has ruled.<br /> </p><p><br /> The judge, Mr Justice Mitting, ruled that "early release provisions" were "not to apply" after the Yorkshire Ripper applied to have a minimum term set which would have given him the chance of parole.<br /> </p><p><br /> After reading statements from relatives of six of the victim's, Mr Justice Mitting said: "None of them suggest any term other than a whole life term would be regarded by them as appropriate." He added that the "brutality and gravity of the offences speak for themselves."<br /> </p><p><br /> Now known as Peter Coonan, the 63-year-old former lorry driver, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981.<br /> </p><p><br /> He received 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.<br /> </p><p><br /> His name was not on a Home Office list, published in 2006, of 35 murderers serving "whole life" sentences and he was given no formal minimum term - which is the least a prisoner must serve before becoming eligible to apply for release on parole.<br /> </p><p><br /> He is currently being held in Broadmoor top security psychiatric hospital after being transferred from prison in 1984 suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. In a 2006 report, his psychiatrist Dr Kevin Murray said, that he now posed a "low risk of reoffending".<br /> </p><p><br /> Sutcliffe is said to have believed he was on a "mission from God" to kill prostitutes - although not all of his victims were sex workers - and was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated their bodies using a hammer, a sharpened screwdriver and a knife.<br /> </p>
