The Yorkshire Ripper's ashes have been scattered in the Canary Islands

A friend of the Yorkshire Ripper, real name Peter Sutcliffe, has scattered his ashes in Lanzarote to grant the serial killer one of his dying wishes, two years after he died of Covid. The woman, who had regularly visited him in jail, travelled to the island with his remains in an urn and tossed them into the sea.

Sutcliffe, who killed 13 women and tried to murder another seven during a five-year killing spree between 1975 and 1980, had asked the friend to scatter his remains 'somewhere nice and sunny' so he could be in a 'better and happier place', according to reports in The Sun. 

She took his ashes to a rocky cove near the Playa de Los Pocillos beach, an area popular with British tourists on the southern coast of Lanzarote, after flying there for a holiday last week.

His friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: 'I made a promise to Peter to scatter his ashes somewhere nice and sunny while I was on my travels.  Sutcliffe, who died with Covid at the age of 74 in November 2020, had barely been overseas before he was arrested in January 1981.

'I know people will think it is appalling, but as far as I'm concerned I was carrying out the wishes of a dying old man. It was a nice moment and, at the end, I was engulfed by a wave which I felt was Peter acknowledging it.'

Playa de Los Pocillos beach where the Ripper's ashes have been scattered

Victims family are not happy with the ritual:
The son of Emily Jackson, who in 1976 became Sutcliffe's second murder victim at the age of 42, has responded angrily calling the ritual 'shocking and disgusting'.

Neil Jackson said: 'His remains should have been chucked down a drain or sent to the local council tip.'

Sutcliffe was jailed for 20 years in 1981, with the sentence converted to a whole-life order in 2010. Police interviewed him no fewer than nine times during their five-year investigation.

He often used the services of sex workers in Leeds and Bradford, targeting them, and was finally arrested by police in Sheffield in 1981 for driving with false number plates.

At that point, he confessed to the killings and claimed the voice of God ordered him to commit them. He died of Covid in prison in November 2020 aged 74.